Update 10 am EDT: A Ring spokesperson sent Ars the following statement: “The practices and programs in question do not reflect Ring today. We stopped donating to law enforcement and encouraging police to promote our products years ago. As Ring has grown, our practices have evolved, and we are always looking for ways to better serve our customers and their communities.”
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Ring gave cops free cameras to build and promote surveillance network
LAPD officers "spread the word" for the startup, helping it gain market share.
When Ring wanted to boost sales of its surveillance cameras and burnish its self-styled image as a crime-fighting company, it embarked on a brand-ambassador marketing campaign that would be familiar to many startups. But rather than chase down the Instagram influencers or beat bloggers, the company instead wooed officers at the Los Angeles Police Department.
For years, including during Amazon’s early ownership of the company, Ring gave no fewer than 100 LAPD officers free devices or discount codes worth tens of thousands of dollars, and possibly more, according to a new report from the Los Angeles Times.
Emails obtained by the LA Times through a public records request reveal Ring employees encouraging LAPD officers to “spread the word about how this doorbell is proven to reduce crime in neighborhoods” and offering freebies and discounts.
“Ring and its relationship with police departments, including the LAPD, is but one example of a burgeoning problem in which there is a lack of clarity as to where the public sector ends and private surveillance capitalism begins,” Mohammad Tajsar, senior staff attorney with the ACLU of Southern California, told Ars.
Ethics concerns
LAPD has an ethics code, of course. It says that officers may not “use their position to secure directly or indirectly unwarranted privileges or exemptions for themselves or others” and they “shall not accept any gifts, gratuities or favors of any kind which might reasonably be interpreted as an attempt to influence their actions with respect to City business.” But for many of the cases the Times uncovered, the LAPD did not appear to be concerned. Discount codes are “generally not in conflict with our Code of Ethics,” Det. Meghan Aguilar told the LA Times. “Of course, each situation is looked at on a case by case basis.”
Questionable evidence
Ring’s campaign came at a time when the company had partnered with LAPD to give out 500 free video doorbells in Los Angeles’ Wilshire Park neighborhood in an attempt to prove its crime-fighting claims. In March 2016, LAPD and Ring held a joint news conference announcing that, after installing just 40 cameras in the neighborhood, burglaries had dropped by 55 percent in six months. Later, the company would amend the results, saying the drop occurred over seven months, not six.
Neither claim was peer-reviewed, and Ring hasn’t released the specifics of its study, but a report by MIT Technology Review cast doubt on the findings. After receiving the locations of the installed cameras from the neighborhood association and after examining public data on crime in those districts, reporter Mark Harris found that burglaries had, in fact, increased when compared with the previous year. What’s more, by 2017, burglaries had surged to their highest in seven years. Nonetheless, Ring continued to tout its “crime fighting” capabilities.
Civil liberty concerns
Ring wound down its influencer campaign in 2019, according to a spokesperson. That was around the time it rolled out its Neighbors app, which allows users to share and comment on nearby videos. LAPD was given access to a special Ring-provided portal to locate and request footage.
ecent reports show that Ring has partnered with police departments across the country to hawk this new surveillance system—going so far as to draft press statements and social media posts for police to promote Ring cameras. This creates a vicious cycle in which police promote the adoption of Ring, Ring terrifies people into thinking their homes are in danger, and then Amazon sells more cameras. . . "
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