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The wooded community of Wolcott, Connecticut, does not see many crimes. But when the chief of police learned that it was possible to distribute doorbell cameras to some houses, he did not hesitate.
The police who oversee the city of 16,000 randomly selected among free cameras in partnership with the camera manufacturer. Until now, gear has met more than criminals, but Chief Ed Stephens is still a fan. "Whatever contributes to the safety of the city, I will do it," he said.
But as more and more police services join Ring, partnerships raise privacy issues. Critics complain that systems are turning neighborhoods into places of constant surveillance and creating suspicion that weighs more heavily on minorities. Police say cameras can be used as neighborhood digital surveillance.
Critics also claim that Ring, a subsidiary of Amazon, seems to market its cameras by raising fear of crime at a time when it is decreasing. Amazon's promotional videos show people lurking in homes and the company recently released a job offer for an editor in charge of "delivering last-minute crime alerts to our neighbors."
"Amazon is taking advantage of fear," said Chris Gilliard, an English professor at Michigan's Macomb Community College and a leading critic of Ring and other technologies that he believes can strengthen racial barriers. Part of the strategy seems to sell the cameras "where the fear of crime is more real than the very existence of the crime".
A person uses the Ring for Smartphone app in Detroit. The growing network of doorbell cameras in America is fueled in part by the support of cities and police services. They view cameras as a technical ally in the never-ending fight against crime. But some privacy advocates fear that the program is fueled by exaggerated fears of crime and contributes to a surveillance society.
The cameras offer a wide view of where they are. Homeowners receive continuous video phone alerts if the doorbell rings or if the unit's thermal sensors detect a person or car pbading by. Ring's basic bell sells for US $ 99 (RM407), with recurring charges starting at US $ 3 (RM12) per month for users who wish to store images. Ring says that it stores records for two months unless they are deleted by users.
Many law enforcement agencies nationwide have stated that the idea of badociating with Ring came after the company promoted its product at the time. conferences on law enforcement.
Some departments have chosen to simply use Ring's Neighbors application, which encourages residents to share videos of suspicious activity. Other agencies have agreed to grant subsidies, like Ring, to hundreds of discount cameras in the hope of exploiting street images, residential yards and sidewalks. And some police chiefs draw lots of devices.
Ring would not disclose the number of communities with such partnerships. Video sharing is always voluntary and privacy is protected, according to the company and the police.
"Owners who participate in the grants do not ask for anything, and their identities and data remain confidential," spokeswoman Brigid Gorham said. She stated that clients can control who is watching their footage and that no personally identifiable information is shared with the police without the user's consent.
Realistically, however, if the police want to record a video for an investigation, they can ask for a search warrant.
Chris Gilliard expresses himself in an interview with the Associated Press in an office in Dearborn, Michigan. Gilliard is an English teacher at Macomb Community College in Michigan and a leading critic of Ring and other technologies that he believes can reinforce racial barriers and discrimination.
Carolina Milanesi, a technology badyst, said engaging with the police and offering incentives was a "very smart move from Ring" and a missed opportunity for competitors, including Google's Nest and small businesses such as Arlo Technologies and SimpliSafe.
But a lawyer from the American Civil Liberties Union in Southern California has called the system "absolute disaster" for the privacy of many neighborhoods.
Through subsidy programs, Amazon "has the opportunity to offer, at the taxpayer's price, discounted products allowing it to actually extend its tentacles into vast areas of privacy," said Mohammad Tajsar.
The suburb of Arcadia in Los Angeles has spent 50,000 USD (205,925 RMB) to offer discounts on 1,000 cameras. Several other communities in the region are also participating in grant programs, and Los Angeles County officials just voted last month for their participation.
Agents can display a "heat map" indicating the general area where the cameras are, but they do not see the actual location of a camera. If the police want a video, she needs to contact Ring to find out if the resident is willing to share, said Jennifer Brutus, senior executive badyst at the Arcadia Police Department.
Field pushes the doorbell of his Ring camera to his home in Wolcott, Connecticut. The country's police services are working with the camera company at the Ring Gate to fight crime and create a kind of modern neighborhood watch.
Arcadia launched its program in late 2017 and the following year, the city experienced a 25% decrease in residential burglaries, said Brutus. It is difficult to quantify what is directly related to Ring, but she said that these devices have a deterrent effect.
In one case, a camera at the door filmed four people suspected of burglary who were trying to enter a residence. Three were arrested at the time, but a fourth escaped. After the owner gave Ring video clips to Arcadia investigators, the police identified and arrested the last suspect.
Hammond, Indiana, has also put money into offering discount Ring cameras. Lt. Steve Kellogg said the partnership was a natural gesture for a city that already uses cameras to read license plates.
"You can not enter or leave our city without … being filmed," he said, adding that ringing cameras were the next logical step. "We thought," Well, the only angle we do not really have is cameras right next to the houses. "
He said that video sharing is voluntary.
Green Bay, Wisconsin, receives a free camera for 20 people subscribed to the Ring app via a city link. Initially, the police asked the recipients of these free cameras to agree to provide any video video requested by the police. He abandoned the requirement after the Associated Press had begun to tell this story.
In the suburb of Coon Rapids, a suburb of Minneapolis, a thief stole a bald eagle sculpture weighing 7 meters and 150 pounds in Larry Eklund's yard earlier this year. The police had a key piece of evidence: an image of the suspect looking directly into Eklund's doorbell camera.
A man tries to leave with a bald eagle burning in Coon Rapids, Minnesota, at Larry and Vicki Eklund's. A thief stole the 7-foot, 150-pound sculpture from the Eklund Court. However, the police had a vital piece of evidence: an image of the suspect looking directly into the camera of the Eklund bell. – Larry and Vicki Eklund / AP
A few days pbaded without leaving a track. Then the agents posted the video on social media. A few hours later, the sculpture was made.
"If we had not had the Ring, we would never have been able to recognize this guy," said Eklund. "I'm sure it would have been really difficult to get it back."
But Coon Rapids chose not to badociate with Ring and instead launched its own registry of internal surveillance cameras. Trish Heitman, a police outreach specialist in the community, said the city did not want to promote a particular camera brand.
Vicki and Larry Eklund pose with their bald eagle engraved at home in Coon Rapids, Minnesota.
Another big problem was the confidentiality. Coon Rapids keeps a list of its registered owners. If a crime occurs near a camera, the police can contact registry owners to find out if they want to share a video.
If a partnership required data sharing, "we would never do it," Heitman said.
Back in Wolcott, Ernie Field won a free ring camera and said he had to sign up for the application to qualify for the draw. He now receives alerts on his phone when a car pbades and a short video when his daughter comes home from school.
Heitman, the police department's outreach specialist in the community, said the city felt that it was "almost untimely" for one government agency to promote one camera brand rather than another.
"I do not know if there is more crime now, or if we know more through social media," he said.
Field, who said he looked at other cameras, wondered if Wolcott's partnership was giving an unfair advantage to Amazon.
"They have a monopoly on a lot of things," he said. "And they're sort of taking care of everything." – AP
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