Law enforcement will soon have easier access to images captured by Amazon’s Ring smart cameras. In a partnership announced this week, Amazon will allow approximately 5,000 local law enforcement agencies to request access to Ring camera footage through Flock Safety’s surveillance platforms. Ring’s cooperation with law enforcement and the reported use of Flock technologies by federal agencies, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), have resurfaced privacy concerns that have followed the devices for years.
According to Flock’s announcement, its Ring partnership allows members of local law enforcement to use Flock software “to send a direct message in the Ring Neighbors app with details about the investigation and request voluntary assistance.” Requests must include “the specific location and time period of the incident, a unique investigation code, and details about what is being investigated,” and users can view requests anonymously, Flock said.
“All images that a Ring customer chooses to submit will be securely packaged by Flock and shared directly with the requesting local public safety agency via the FlockOS or Flock Nova platform,” the announcement states.
Flock said its local law enforcement users will have access to Ring community requests in “the coming months.”
A multitude of privacy concerns
Outside of its software platforms, Flock is known for its license plate recognition cameras. Flock customers can also search for footage from Flock cameras using descriptors to find people, such as “man in blue shirt and cowboy hat.” Besides law enforcement, Flock says 6,000 communities and 1,000 businesses use their products.
For years, privacy advocates have been warning about 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), Secret Service, and the U.S. Naval Criminal Investigative Service had access to Flock’s license plate camera footage.
