Privacy vs. Protection: Change in Ring doorbell video sharing policy to impact police investigations

Our Take

Credit to WKBW TV in Buffalo for flagging this one: Amazon is shutting down the "Request for Assistance" feature that let police ask Ring users directly for doorbell footage through the Neighbors app. On paper, that's a win for anyone tired of law enforcement fishing for private camera footage without a warrant. In practice, it's a narrow fix to a much wider problem.

Losing one informal backchannel doesn't mean the surveillance pipeline dries up. Police departments across the country have built out far more systematic tools — automated license plate readers that log every car that passes a fixed point, shared across regional and national networks, often with little public oversight or retention limits. Flock Safety cameras are the biggest example, and they don't need to ask permission the way Ring did. They just watch, tag, and store.

So enjoy the Ring news, but don't mistake it for the fight being over. The bigger dragnet is the one running on public streets right now, camera by camera. Check our map to see what's tracking your neighborhood, and head to take action if you want to push back on it.