Is Big Brother watching? Police departments team up with Ring for video-sharing
The short version: ABC24 Memphis flags Memphis PD's Ring partnership, another reminder that private doorbell cameras are quietly becoming an extension of the surveillance state.
Our Take
ABC24 Memphis is asking the right question: when your neighbor's doorbell camera can be requested by police without a warrant, how much privacy do any of us actually have left? This isn't new territory for departments already leaning on automated license plate readers — Ring's video-sharing tools are just another node in the same web of always-on monitoring, except now it's bolted onto your own front porch.
The pitch is always "solve crimes faster," but the mechanics matter: footage requests, data retention, and who gets access down the line rarely get the same airtime as the sales pitch. Combine that with a city's ALPR network quietly logging every car that passes, and you've got a surveillance dragnet built one "convenient partnership" at a time, with almost no public vote on any of it.
If Memphis is layering doorbell footage on top of plate-reader cameras, residents deserve to know the full scope of what's watching them. Check our camera map to see what's already tracking your area, and hit up take-action for ways to push back on unchecked surveillance creep.
This is DeFlock The USA’s original commentary. The video above is the work of ABC24 Memphis, published on YouTube — full credit to the creator.