Amazon has canceled a planned integration between Ring doorbell cameras and police surveillance company Flock Safety, a partnership that was announced but never rolled out to customers.
The proposed integration would have expanded how Ring users could share video in response to law-enforcement requests through the Community Requests program, a feature that allows law enforcement to request video footage from Ring users. The decision to cancel the integration follows renewed scrutiny of consumer camera networks and how they can be repurposed for broader tracking, especially when combined with technologies like license plate readers and facial recognition.
Critics argued that the same tools that help find lost pets can also enable surveillance of people who never opted in, raising concerns about privacy and the potential for misuse. Flock Safety, which operates a large network of automated license plate reader cameras used by law enforcement, has published its own statement on the canceled integration, providing insight into the company’s perspective on the matter.
Despite canceling the planned integration with Flock Safety, Amazon’s Ring still supports video-sharing workflows through its existing Community Requests process, allowing law enforcement to continue requesting video footage from Ring users. This existing feature remains unchanged, continuing to facilitate the sharing of video in response to law-enforcement requests.
