Police in almost every state in the United States use Amazon’s Ring program

If you have an Amazon Ring smart doorbell, you need to know something. A growing number of police and fire departments are interested in your doorbell or, to be frank, the camera, especially if they think it might help them with their investigations. In fact, there are now 2,014 departments on the program for every state in the United States except Montana and Wyoming.

According to a recent report by Financial times, the number of departments in Amazon’s Ring program more than doubled last year, when the company incorporated 1,189 departments. The program allows law enforcement officials to contact Ring users in a given area and ask them to provide footage from their cameras that could be relevant to local investigations.

The Times reported that in 2020, departments collectively requested videos related to more than 22,335 incidents.

Not the police need an order to request the videos, and owners can refuse to provide their Ring images. However, the scene changes when subpoenas, court orders and search warrants are involved, according to the Times, as Amazon may be forced to comply with these legal requirements. requests and provides images and “credentials” even if the doorbell owner has denied access.

Gizmodo reached out to Ring asking for confirmation of the number of police and firefighters on the Ring show, as well as comments on the report. We do not receive specific answers to our questions. A Ring spokesperson pointed Gizmodo at Ring Map of active agencies

, which the company updates quarterly with video request numbers “to give Ring device owners, Neighbors users, and the general public a better idea of ​​how public safety agencies are using Neighbors to interact with their communities. “

Regarding law enforcement user requests for information, a Ring spokesperson pointed Gizmodo to a blog post on the subject the company posted earlier this month.

“Like many other businesses, Ring receives and responds to legally binding law enforcement requests for user information that is not overly broad or inappropriate. At Ring, we are committed to being transparent about our privacy and security practices, ”said the Ring spokesperson.

In the blog postRing detailed requests for police information processed in 2020, which included subpoenas, arrest warrants, search warrants, requests outside the United States, and national security requests. Of the 2,149 requests made, Ring provided a “ full response ” meaning that it provided all of the information requested, to 919 requests, of which 830 were search warrants. Search warrants were also the most frequently received request, i.e. 1,610 applications in 2020.

Ring also provided a “partial response”, or provided only part of the information requested, to 171 requests. “No response”, which means that you have not provided any of the information requested, to 810 case.

According to the report, one of the departments that used the Ring program the most was the Milwaukee, Wisconsin Police Department. It made 431 claims in the second half of 2020, more than any other department in the country. Police officers interviewed by the outlet cited the high number of homicides in the city: Milwaukee broke its annual homicide register last november with at least 184 murders– And the hundreds of shootings.

Milwaukee Police are “investigating” videos to investigate many of these types of incidents, authorities said.

While Ring maintained that his agenda gives law enforcement more resources to solve crimes, critics accuse him of build a “Private For Profit Surveillance Network.” In the meantime Ilegal experts and privacy advocates concern that the network and the program could threaten civil liberties and turn Ring users into law enforcement informants. It could also hurt innocent people surveillance.

[Financial Times]