Police now need a warrant to request Ring camera video footage
The short version: Ring now requires police to get a warrant for footage requests, but the bigger, less-regulated surveillance dragnet—automated license plate readers—faces no such limits.
Our Take
Credit to WTKR News 3 for flagging Amazon's policy shift: police can no longer just ask a Ring homeowner (or Amazon directly) for video without a warrant. That's a real, if narrow, win for Fourth Amendment norms in an industry that's spent years normalizing informal cop-to-camera data requests.
But let's not get too comfortable. Ring cameras are opt-in and owned by individuals who can say no. Flock Safety's ALPR network is neither. It's bolted to poles by cities and HOAs, runs 24/7, and feeds a searchable database of everywhere your car has been — often with zero warrant requirement, zero owner consent, and minimal public oversight. One company tightening its front door doesn't fix the wide-open back door that automated plate readers represent.
If a doorbell camera needing a warrant is news, a nationwide plate-tracking grid running warrant-free should be the real headline. Check our map to see what's watching your neighborhood, and hit take action if you want to push back.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of WTKR News 3, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.