Free doorbell camera, if you let police watch
It’s like an old-fashioned block watch, but with a digital twist.
Instead of peering out windows, people are looking at their computers and phones, watching video footage from their doorbell cameras.
In some Milwaukee neighborhoods, the police may wind up watching, too.
Two south side business improvement districts and a separate business association recently partnered with the
Milwaukee Police
Department to provide area residents free and discounted Ring cameras. The camera company is owned by tech giant Amazon.
Residents who receive free cameras through the business groups are required to sign agreements that they will cooperate with law enforcement requests, buy Ring’s cloud storage service and use their cameras “appropriately.”
“Any of type of camera system being used is always beneficial,” said Milwaukee Police Capt. Kristin Riestra, who oversees District 6 on the city’s south side. “It’s an extension of the old-school block watch.”
“This is the wave of the future. There’s no expectation to privacy when you’re out on the public street.” Former Ald. Terry Witkowski who represented West Layton Avenue area
The agreements help police build a network of cameras across the city. They also allow officers to get footage quickly, without obtaining a search warrant. That and other factors have raised privacy concerns.
“What we’ve seen and what particularly concerns civil rights advocates and the ACLU is a growing surveillance state with police having access to an ever-expanding network of cameras,” said Tim Muth, an attorney at ACLU of Wisconsin.
Officials with Ring would not tell the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel how many police departments they are working with nationwide. But tech news organization CNET reported that Ring has partnered with more than 50 departments, including those in Houston and Bloomfield, New Jersey.
The company sells its cheapest cameras for $99. MPD received discount codes for about $40 off the cameras. In some cases, they are given free to residents.
In all, at least 175 have been given out in the past two years.
Police access to the information isn’t the only worry cited by critics.
It is unclear how Amazon uses data from the Ring cameras. It isn’t certain how Ring camera use is monitored. And it’s unknown how Amazon plans to further develop its facial recognition technology, which can be tied in to the cameras.
Tara Cavazos, executive director of the Historic Highway 41 BID, maintains that the cameras help reduce burglaries, vandalization and other crimes in her area. Historic Highway 41 runs along West Layton Avenue.
She recalls two arrests based on Ring camera evidence.
“It’s everyone assisting everyone,” Cavazos said of the Ring-camera initiative. “Unless something major happens, law enforcement is not going to come to you and ask you for your camera.”
Police partnership
Evidence is key for police officers, who gather a variety of materials as they track suspects.
Ring is a way to get that evidence quickly.
“This is the wave of the future,” said
former Ald. Terry Witkowski, who represented the West Layton Avenue area until stepping down in late May. “There’s no expectation to privacy when you’re out on the public street.”
Before he was an alderman, Witkowski worked on the Milwaukee Safety Commission, where he eventually became safety director.
Looking at a digital map, officers can see which households have registered Ring cameras. Officers can then request video footage from those households. The department has addresses, names and contact information of people who received free cameras, along with others who choose to register their cameras voluntarily, Cavazos said.
Meanwhile, Ring’s free smartphone application, called Neighbors, shows locations of video or written posts by residents. Users can instantly share live and recorded Ring videos with others. The app operates as an open forum for people to ask one another about suspicious activities.
MPD, like other departments, monitors posts on the Neighbors app.
“Camera owners that share video with the Milwaukee Police Department play a crucial role in the ability of the Milwaukee Police to solve crime and keep our neighborhoods safe for people to live, work and raise a family,” the department said in a statement.
It is unclear how many households and businesses have registered Ring cameras and how often MPD monitors the Neighbors app or residents using
Ring footage. The department did not respond to questions about Ring from the Journal Sentinel.
Not only do the cameras hold criminals accountable, they hold police responsible, too.
Bay View resident Daniela Perez said she reported to officials when her Ring cameras caught members of MPD repeatedly stopping foster teens on her block. She said the teens were approached in their cars and on their front porch — and that officers tried to wrongly pin one of the teens as a crime suspect.
“It just gets really frustrating because residents of the Bay View neighborhood want to be safe, but it’s really hard when we have video evidence showing that these same poor teenagers are being targeted,” Perez said.
Perez said she and other residents reported the incidents to MPD, but were told that officers were “just doing their jobs.”
MPD did not respond to Perez’s allegations, but encouraged residents to contact police with concerns.
‘What if I forget to close my blinds?’
To get a free Ring camera, residents might be sacrificing some freedoms.
The Historic Highway 41 BID has residents sign written agreements when claiming free cameras.
Muth said the written agreements — which require police cooperation and storage subscriptions — present a “huge problem.” He said police should still need a warrant to search someone’s personal property.
Ring itself has spoken out against these kinds of agreements.
“Ring does not support programs that require recipients to subscribe to a recording plan or share footage as a condition for receiving a donated device,” a Ring spokesperson said in a statement. “We are actively working with partners to ensure this is reflected in their programs.”
Cavazos, meanwhile, said her BID’s decision to create the agreements “really is not tied into what Ring’s thoughts are on it.”
Another part of the local agreement asks users to operate their Ring cameras appropriately, though it is unclear what this means or how it is enforced.
“We just want to be clear that we’re giving it to people in good faith,” Cavazos said.
Ring cameras capture the field of view chosen by their owners.
Bay View resident Blaine Venturine said he’s worried cameras might capture private moments inside nearby households.
“What if I forget to close my blinds?” Venturine asked.
Unknown how data is used
It’s unclear how Amazon uses Ring customers’ data and video footage.
It’s a fact that leaves some Milwaukee residents concerned.
Brent Bublitz, who lives north of Bay View, said he purchased surveillance cameras from another company to store his own footage. His data stays on a hard drive in his basement.
He can’t access the footage remotely like Ring users can, but Bublitz has peace of mind.
“I’m not reliant on a company that I would have to pay a monthly fee to access the video,” Bublitz said. “The video will always be there when I need it.”
Muth said keeping footage on a hard drive prevents users from unknowingly giving data to a big tech company.
“You get this picture of Big Brother government law enforcement agencies with access to hundreds of millions of images of people going about their daily life,” Muth said.
Still, Ring cameras keep attracting customers. One selling point: They don’t
require users to have personal computers or set up hard drive space.
“I’m a realist to recognize people are going to like the convenience of the ease of setting up a Ring doorbell system,” Muth said. “They can just look at it in this app that’s already created.”
Muth encouraged people with Ring cameras to read privacy policies in full. The Federal Trade Commission and other authorities can take action if a company deceives users.
“That being said, I’m not sure that the companies so far are afraid of the regulators,” Muth said.
Ring did not provide a response to a Journal Sentinel question about how it addresses privacy concerns.
“Privacy and security and consent are extremely important to us, and every decision we make as a company centers around these three pillars,” a Ring spokesperson said.
Facial recognition and racial profiling
On the Neighbors app, videos of people doing nothing more than ringing doorbells are shared constantly.
“Does anyone know this man?” a resident asked on the afternoon on July 5.
“Does anybody recognize this man or his company?” another resident asked on the evening of July 11.
Muth is concerned about the unconscious biases that arise when people share videos of neighborhood visitors.
“I have a real concern that there would be a certain level of racial profiling — that people are more likely, unfortunately, to post pictures of people of color coming to their door and ringing their doorbell than they would if it was just a white person,” Muth said.
The effects of this could extend beyond the Neighbors app.
Amazon offers facial recognition technology, called Rekognition, that allows people to add video and image analysis to their Ring devices.
The ACLU obtained marketing materials showing that Amazon promotes Rekognition to law enforcement agencies. Police departments can build databases of mugshot photos and use Amazon’s facial recognition technology to scan for matches from Ring surveillance footage.
The ACLU found that the Orlando Police Department in Florida and the Washington County Sheriff’s Office in Oregon were Rekognition customers.
MPD did not comment when asked by the Journal Sentinel if it uses Rekognition.
The partnership with the Orlando Police Department recently ended after city officials said the technology had glitches and infrastructure issues, the Orlando Weekly reported. The Weekly reported that the department was never able to test images.
The ACLU tested Amazon’s facial recognition system on members of Congress in July 2018 and found that false matches disproportionately affected people of color.
While people of color made up about 20% of Congress at the time, about 40% of the false matches were people of color. The test incorrectly identified 28 members of Congress as people who have been arrested for a crime.
Financial investment
Two years into the Ring partnership, three Milwaukee business organizations have invested about $30,000 in implementing Ring surveillance technology.
Milwaukee’s Historic Highway 41 BID partnered in 2018 with the Gateway to Milwaukee business association, which works to bolster economic development around Milwaukee Mitchell International Airport. At the time, Highway 41 BID’s safety committee and Gateway to Milwaukee each invested $7,000 to purchase Ring cameras.
In 2019, the Crisol Corridor BID — located near the intersection of South 13th Street and West Oklahoma Avenue — joined in on the collaboration. All three organizations then invested $5,000 each into Ring technology.
MPD was recognized for the joint efforts with the Outstanding Greater Milwaukee Partnership award in February, overseen by nonprofit organizations Safe & Sound and LISC Milwaukee. The award honors “partnerships that have contributed to reducing crime, fear and disorder in their respective community.”
The future of the partnership isn’t set in stone.
Cavazos said the BIDs’ Ring collaboration with MPD in 2020 will depend on results of a survey of residents and crime rate data, among other factors. She expects to receive this information in October or November before a decision is made.