Orlando deal with Ring gives police broader access to tool
Life coach Mary Tiffany wasn’t home when her cellphone pinged with a notification that somebody was at her door.
She popped up video from the camera-activated Ring video doorbell security system and saw a delivery man had dropped off a package on the porch and was going through her mail.
“They were quite startled when I came on and asked him if there was anything they were looking for,” said Tiffany, 70, of the Conway area.
Now, Orlando Police are hoping further access to the network of about 10,000 Ring users in Orlando will help the department solve burglaries, mail thefts and other crimes. The City Council on Tuesday OK’d an agreement with Ring to give authorities access to post alerts in the platform’s social media-like neighborhood network.
Orlando Police spokeswoman Michelle Guido said for detectives to have access to the video, they’ll still need consent from the homeowner, but that typically isn’t a problem when trying to solve such cases.
“This is just another tool we
can use,” Guido said. “Right now, we go door-to-door and ask people if they have video. People who want their community to be safe typically hand the video over.”
When somebody appears within the range of the Ring system, an alert is triggered to the user’s phone that says motion was detected. With the push of a button, a livecamera feed brings the activity within focus.
The product has been around for about six years, and the company was purchased by Amazon in February for an undisclosed price.
The doorbell is a rectangle with a button that makes the sound as well as a camera mounted above it. It’s run through Wi-Fi.
According to the city, about 10,000 Orlando residents have the device, which starts at $99 per unit, with an additional cost of $30 a year to review and share recordings.
Under the agreement, Orlando Police also gain access to Ring’s neighborhood network, which allows users to share videos of suspected intruders and communicate about crime trends.
“Let’s say we notice there is an uptick in vehicle burglaries … we can go in there and say, ‘Hey, we’ve noticed some safety tips, here are some safety tips,’ ” Guido said.
Ring spokeswoman Yassi Shahmiri said the network “facilitates communication, which is a crucial element of crime prevention. By working together, we can make our neighborhoods safer.”
The company’s social media accounts are littered with video clips of people snatching packages from porches and going through the mail. Others show burglars casing properties or breaking in.
These videos have proven valuable for authorities trying to crack these hardto-solve cases and promote conversation when the clips are shared on Facebook.
“We have detectives that work hard on property crimes,” Guido said. “We want to get people their property back and put bad guys in jail.”
Tiffany said she also received a notification from Ring last week when nearby Boone High School and Blankner K-8 School were put on lockout as authorities scoped out a suspicious package.
And in the instance of the delivery man going through her mail, Tiffany was able to send the video to the company to let them know about it.
“I like being able to see who’s out there, and I can talk to them remotely from anywhere,” Tiffany said. “It’s a real sense of security.”