Law enforcement agencies will soon have easier access to footage captured by Amazon’s Ring smart cameras. In a partnership announced this week, Amazon will allow about 5,000 local law enforcement agencies to request access to Ring camera footage across its surveillance platforms. Herd safety. Ring’s cooperation with law enforcement and the reported use of Flock technologies by federal agencies, including U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have raised privacy concerns that have followed the devices for years.
According to Flock’s announcement, its partnership with Ring allows members of local law enforcement to use Flock’s software to “send a post directly in the Ring Neighbors app with details about the investigation and request for volunteer assistance.” Requests must include “a specific location and time frame of the incident, a unique investigation code, and details about what is being investigated,” and users can view requests anonymously, Fluke said.
“Any footage a Ring customer chooses to send will be securely packaged by Flock and shared directly with the requesting local public safety agency through the FlockOS or Flock Nova platform,” the announcement reads.
Local law enforcement users will be able to access Ring community requests in the “coming months,” Flock said.
A flock of privacy concerns
Outside of its software platforms, Flock is known for License plate recognition cameras. Herd clients can too Searching Footage from Flock cameras uses descriptions to find people, such as “man wearing blue shirt and cowboy hat.” Besides law enforcement agencies, Fluke says 6,000 communities and 1,000 businesses use its products.
For years, privacy advocates have warned against companies like Flock.
This week, U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) sent a letter [PDF] to Flock CEO Garrett Langley, saying that ICE’s Homeland Security Investigations (HSI), the Secret Service, and the US Navy’s Criminal Investigative Service had access to footage from Flock’s license plate cameras.