Ring has once again started letting police request footage from users. Axon, a law enforcement technology company and maker of Taser, announced in April that it’s partnering with Ring to allow customers to share “relevant video with law enforcement to help solve crimes faster and safeguard neighborhoods,” as spotted earlier by Business Insider.
The move reverses Ring’s plan to step away from sharing video with police. Last year, the company discontinued “Request for Assistance,” a feature that allowed law enforcement officers to ask people for camera footage through Ring’s Neighbors app. At the time, the company said it would only let police request footage during “emergencies,” which still allowed law enforcement to obtain footage without a warrant, raising privacy concerns
Now, Ring’s partnership with Axon will allow police to solicit footage from Ring users through Axon’s digital evidence management system, though it’s unclear whether this will surface in the Neighbors app. Once the request is sent, Ring users can decide whether or not to send the footage, and if they do, it will be “encrypted and securely added to the case file,” according to Axon. Axon also claims Ring won’t share information about the users who declined to share footage. A source tells Business Insider that Ring is “exploring a new integration with Axon that would enable livestreaming from Ring devices” if customers give permission.
Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, who returned to Amazon in April to head up the teams dedicated to Ring, Blink, Amazon Key, and Sidewalk, said the integration will help further Ring’s mission to “make neighborhoods safer.”
Ring has come under fire in the past for allegedly helping police convince users to share their video footage, Motherboard reported in 2019. In 2023, Ring agreed to pay $5.8 million to settle a lawsuit from the Federal Trade Commission that claimed its cameras enabled Ring workers and hackers to illegally spy on users.
Siminoff said in the April announcement, “This integration with Axon will foster a vital connection between our neighbors and public safety agencies in their communities, giving them a way to work together to keep their neighborhoods safe.”
By 2021, Ring had partnered with over 2,000 police and fire departments in almost every US state.