Policing boon, or privacy concern?

Denver, Columbine Valley work with Ring to access surveillance video; other departments may as well

Thousands of self-installed home security cameras across the Denver area record the daily comings and goings of their neighbors and visitors on their streets, and police are increasingly attempting to partner with camera companies for easier access to the footage.

The Denver Police Department and the tiny southern suburb town of Columbine Valley already work with Ring, a camera company owned by Amazon, to access the business’s app and more easily request surveillance videos.

At least three more departments in the Denver area have meetings scheduled with the company to discuss potential partnerships.

Police and the company say the agreements allow residents to help police, make their neighborhoods safer and foster engagement between people and officers.

But privacy experts and civil rights advocates are wary. While Ring says police can’t access footage from the cameras without permission, privacy experts said the partnerships are ripe for expansion and raise concerns about racial profiling. The company’s privacy policy also appears to allow Ring to provide content to law enforcement without consent, or even a warrant.

“I would be skeptical of any law enforcement agency or company telling me there’s no other way to get access to this,” said Margot Kaminski, a professor at the University of Colorado Boulder’s law school and director of the Privacy Initiative at Silicon Flatirons.

Ring’s app, called Neighbors, allows people to anonymously post recordings captured by their cameras. Videos posted recently in Denver show suspected package thefts, break-ins, the theft of a flower pot and videos of unknown people knocking on a front door labeled as “suspicious” and “creepy.” The app also posts alerts from a “news team” about crimes that happen, citing police radio traffic or local news outlets.

“The concern is that it’s more than the sum of its parts,” Kaminski said. “This is becoming a database, and that database is analyzable.”