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On a Monday afternoon in late June, two women were outside on the 500 block of Gridley Avenue in Akron, Ohio, when they were\u00a0shot<\/a>. Moments earlier, three young men pulled up in a silver Ford Taurus, exited the vehicle, and opened fire before driving away, according to local\u00a0media<\/a>\u00a0accounts<\/a>. More than 40 shell casings were recovered, reports say, with bullets striking several vehicles and homes. One of the victims, a 65-year-old woman, said she was shot in the shoulder while sitting on her porch. \u201cI\u2019ve lived here for 41 years and I can\u2019t even sit on my porch anymore,\u201d she\u00a0told<\/a>\u00a019 News in Cleveland.<\/p>\n The next day, there was\u00a0another shooting<\/a>\u00a0just over a mile away, also involving multiple young men in a vehicle. In both cases, the incidents were recorded by\u00a0Ring video doorbells<\/a>\u00a0and the footage was shared with the police department and local television news stations.<\/p>\n There have been no arrests so far. The Akron Police Department, however, says it is always looking for opportunities to use video doorbells \u2014 which are motion activated devices that record both movement and audio \u2014 along with other technologies, to help solve cases like these.<\/p>\n Coincidentally, the week of the June shootings, the Akron City Council\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0a pilot program to\u00a0give away<\/a>\u00a0460 video doorbells from Ring \u2014 owned by Amazon \u2014 to residents in targeted neighborhoods with high crime rates in an effort to reduce or deter crime. Those residents who participate must agree to turn over any recorded video to police if asked.<\/p>\n About 6,800 Akron residents were eligible for the doorbells as of June,\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to The Akron Beacon Journal. Some of them live in or around so-called\u00a0hot spots<\/a>, which are highly trafficked places where crimes occur more frequently. Hot spots can account for up to 50 percent of reported crime in some cities even though they are only a small footprint of the total area.<\/p>\n Nearly a month after the Akron program was revealed, the northwestern Louisiana city of Shreveport\u00a0announced<\/a>\u00a0a similar program offering free Ring cameras to residents or homeowners.<\/p>\n Akron and Shreveport are joining a growing number of cities where authorities buy Ring video doorbells and offer them to residents free or offer a rebate. In 2019, more than 400 police departments partnered with Ring. As of the end of November, that\u00a0number<\/a>\u00a0is more than 2,600 police departments, along with almost 600 fire departments and more than 70 local government agencies.<\/p>\n The partnerships enable residents to share video \u2014 and police to request their videos \u2014 with a simple click on the\u00a0Neighbors by Ring<\/a>\u00a0application for smartphones and tablets. This essentially creates a virtual neighborhood watch. \u201cCriminals and thieves take note: our team is working tirelessly to stop you and make safer neighborhoods for our families to live in,\u201d Ring\u2019s founder and chief inventor, Jamie Siminoff, wrote in a 2019\u00a0post<\/a>\u00a0on the company\u2019s website.<\/p>\n The problem is that there is very little published data on the effectiveness of Ring \u2014 or similar, less popular video doorbell cameras, such as Google Nest, Skybell, ADT, or Vivint \u2014 as a crime prevention or deterrent tool, several researchers told Undark. And, according to datasets that helped researchers at MIT Media Lab\u00a0create<\/a>\u00a0what they say is the first nationwide map of Ring users and usage patterns, the cameras may have little to no impact on crime in Los Angeles, a city with a relatively high concentration of the devices.<\/p>\n \u201cThis is a question that comes up time and time again, especially among both critics and proponents of the system,\u201d said computer scientist\u00a0Dan Calacci<\/a>, a co-author of the MIT Media Lab paper who is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Princeton University\u2019s\u00a0Center for Information Technology Policy<\/a>. \u201cBecause people, I think, see it as a crime deterrent tool. And there\u2019s no strong evidence.\u201d<\/p>\n The conclusions to the MIT Media Lab paper on Ring are among the latest datapoints in an ongoing conversation \u2014 in academia, popular media, and social media \u2014 around surveillance. A recently published 40-year\u00a0systematic review<\/a>\u00a0of the effect of closed circuit television on crime found that systems that were actively monitored were associated with a significant reduction in crime, while passively monitored systems were not.\u00a0<\/em><\/strong>And earlier in November, Wired published a\u00a0long read<\/a>\u00a0by contributor Lauren Smiley on the ubiquity of citizen surveillance in San Francisco.<\/p>\n Ring claims that its video doorbells also prevent crime, said\u00a0Ben Stickle<\/a>, a criminologist based at Middle Tennessee State University who researches package theft and emerging crimes. That seems to be a selling point, he added, but \u201cit\u2019s really not been studied.\u201d<\/p>\n The number of Ring cameras across the nation has increased as more consumers opt for home deliveries since the pandemic. Some analysts say the larger number of smart video doorbells doesn\u2019t necessarily make neighborhoods safer but does increase police powers by warrantless video requests.<\/p>\n The police partnerships allow Ring to operate as a \u201cprivately owned surveillance\u201d network without accountability, said Max Isaacs, senior staff attorney for the New York University School of Law\u2019s Policing Project and a co-author of a civil rights\u00a0audit<\/a>\u00a0of Ring that took almost two years to complete. \u201cAt a bare minimum,\u201d Isaacs said, the police \u201cwould need to go to the city council, they would need to get an appropriation to set up these cameras. But when private individuals are setting up their own surveillance networks, and handing the data over to police, you\u2019ve evaded those democratic checks.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYou end up with a situation in which police can dramatically expand their surveillance capabilities without any meaningful oversight,\u201d he said. Ring did not respond to questions from Undark in time for publication.<\/p>\n Ring, based in Santa Monica,\u00a0California, markets a line of smart, Wi-Fi- enabled doorbell cameras, as well as other home security cameras and alarm systems. More than 10 million Americans are believed to own the company\u2019s signature product: the world\u2019s first video doorbell camera.<\/p>\n Ring began in 2012 through crowdfunding as \u201cDoorBot.\u201d The next year, Siminoff\u00a0appeared<\/a>\u00a0on the ABC television reality series \u201cShark Tank\u201d and pitched the device to investors for a $700,000 investment. The investors declined. The next year, the company was rebranded as Ring and\u00a0sold<\/a>\u00a0to Amazon four years later for more than $1 billion, according to\u00a0estimates<\/a>. Ring is now the leading manufacturer of smart doorbells globally.<\/p>\n The doorbell cameras are connected to smartphones, tablets, and computers via a wireless router and offer a live video feed of the area around the doorbell, including front porch, hallways, walkways, or sidewalks. The devices begin recording whenever\u00a0motion is detected<\/a>\u00a0within a range of about 30 feet. The cameras also have the capacity to record audio and can detect noise and conversations up to about 18 feet, according to tests\u00a0conducted<\/a>\u00a0by Consumer Reports.<\/p>\n The Neighbors by Ring social media application allows users to upload and share these recorded videos with neighbors. The app\u00a0reportedly<\/a>\u00a0has more than 10 million active users, who can customize their stream of safety alerts and recorded videos and post them to others on the platform who are within a radius of about 5 miles. The app also enables linked police departments to request footage from the doorbells on specific streets, blocks, or other locations. There were reportedly some 3,500 police requests in the first six months of 2022, according to\u00a0Wired<\/a>.<\/p>\n Residents and homeowners who received rebates or got their video doorbells for free through city partnerships with Ring \u2014 such as in Akron or Shreveport \u2014 are required to comply with any request for their footage that police deem reasonably necessary.<\/p>\n Ring\u00a0claims<\/a>\u00a0its video doorbells reduced burglaries by 50 percent in two neighborhoods in Newark, New Jersey, from April to July 2018, compared to the same period the previous year. But according to an October 2018\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0by MIT Technology Review, the data, collected several months after Amazon acquired Ring in February 2018, has not been authenticated by outside experts. \u201cThe latest data,\u201d the article noted, \u201cshow burglaries down by nearly 30% citywide [in 2018] and the biggest improvements were outside the Ring trial precincts.\u201d<\/p>\n In fact, there is little independent data on Ring\u2019s effectiveness, though the company has previously cited several studies or reports to back up its claims. One often-reported statistic is that Ring video doorbells helped\u00a0reduce burglaries<\/a>\u00a0by 55 percent over six months in 2015 in a Los Angeles neighborhood. Such findings have\u00a0drawn skepticism<\/a>\u00a0from journalists<\/a>\u00a0and researchers alike.<\/p>\n And according to the team at MIT Media Lab, there was no strong evidence that video doorbells decrease property crimes across Los Angeles. Their\u00a0paper<\/a>, published last fall in the peer-reviewed journal The Proceedings of the Association for Computing Machinery on Human-Computer Interaction, created the \u201cfirst comprehensive map and analysis of smart doorbell camera use across the continental U.S.\u201d<\/p>\n Calacci and their colleagues, computer scientists Jeffrey J. Shen and Alex \u2018Sandy\u2019 Pentland, wanted to determine how consumers use and share Ring camera videos on the Neighbors app at the county and the state level.<\/p>\n \u201cWe found no real correlation between higher and lower crime rates in different counties or real census tracts for property crime versus violent crime for places that you\u2019d post more on the platform,\u201d Calacci told Undark.<\/p>\n The researchers also used spatial regression \u2014 a type of statistical analysis that demonstrates relationships between geographic areas \u2014 to estimate nationwide usage of Ring and the Neighbors app. The dataset included about 850,000 text and video posts made by about 650,000 users between October 2016 and February 2020. The datasets show there were less than 500 posts per day in October 2016 and nearly 2,000 per day in early 2020.<\/p>\n The team then decided to use Los Angeles as a case study because of its size, economic, and racial diversity, and the city\u2019s high rate of camera usage. In addition, the researchers noted, the Los Angeles Police Department was \u201cone of the earliest law enforcement agencies in the U.S. to partner with Ring and the LAPD has used the platform extensively to collect video footage.\u201d<\/p>\n The researchers analyzed LAPD crime data from 2019. The data showed no significant correlation between posting rates on the Neighbors app and actual theft, burglary, trespassing, vehicle theft, and break-in statistics in the city that year.<\/p>\n \u201cIn other words,\u201d the authors concluded, \u201cthe prevalence of content on Ring Neighbors reporting crimes does not reflect the official crime rates within that community.\u201d<\/p>\n In recent years,\u00a0Ring has drawn a significant amount of news coverage, mostly concerning how its\u00a0data is stored and shared<\/a>, and transparency on the Neighbors app. Some of that attention has focused on how videos are shared with police departments. For instance, in July 2022, Amazon\u00a0revealed<\/a>\u00a0that it provided Ring video doorbell camera recordings to police departments at least 11 times that year without the owners\u2019 consent.<\/p>\n To that end, Ring approached New York University School of Law\u2019s\u00a0Policing Project<\/a>\u00a0in 2020 to assess how police departments were using its technology. The Policing Project is a research and advocacy organization that often audits emerging policing technologies such as\u00a0facial recognition technology<\/a>, body-worn cameras, and\u00a0aerial surveillance.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cDuring the audit, Ring gave us access to information about NPSS that to this point has never been disclosed publicly,\u201d such as the amount of video police accessed and the types of crimes that are investigated, the authors wrote in their final\u00a0report<\/a>. NPSS, or\u00a0Neighbors Public Safety Service<\/a>, allows police departments to join the Neighbors app.<\/p>\n The Policing Project noted that Ring provided every video request made by the police during a three-month period. The audit reviewed several thousand requests by police in June 2020, September 2020, and January 2021. The audit revealed the most common police requests were theft from vehicles, shootings, and thefts from homes. \u201cThere also were a significant number of video requests where the underlying crime was unclear,\u201d according to the report, \u201ca problem that Ring has corrected during this audit.\u201d<\/p>\n Another key concern was transparency. The audit noted that Ring previously did not publish the names or total numbers of police partners. As a result, Ring now creates public profiles for every police and public safety partner, and every video request by police partners must be made through a public post on the Neighbors app. Ring also agreed not to partner with federal or immigration law enforcement agencies.<\/p>\n Another issue surrounding\u00a0Ring video doorbells is their supposed impact on package theft, or \u201cporch piracy.\u201d More than 119 million packages were stolen in 2023,\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to SafeWise, an online home and internet security resource.<\/p>\n But estimates vary, according to\u00a0Stickle<\/a>, who is on the SafeWise board of advisers. There is very little hard data on the extent and scope of package theft and the phenomenon is relatively understudied, he said.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s no specific skill necessary to walk up and take a package,\u201d Stickle said. \u201cThe risks of being caught and captured are very minimal as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Stickle and other researchers are not convinced that Ring video doorbells are an effective deterrent. \u201cThe number of steps that it would take for video footage to be useful in a criminal case is pretty substantial,\u201d noted Stickle. First, the camera must be functioning and placed at the best angle to capture the crime, he said. Then the crime must be recorded properly.<\/p>\n \u201cThen they have to call the police,\u201d Stickle added. \u201cThe police have to respond and choose to do a report, which for many times, those things don\u2019t happen for package theft. You have to get the video to the police and then they have to try to find some way to find out who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n The nationwide increase in the number of smart doorbells are also impacting laws and public policy, according to an October 2022\u00a0report<\/a>\u00a0that draws on interviews with video doorbell users and delivery workers.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve seen a rather large increase in municipalities that are trying to either increase penalties for package theft or create new penalties for package theft, some of them even classifying them as felonies that could lead to jail time,\u201d said the\u00a0report\u2019s<\/a>\u00a0co-author,\u00a0Aiha Nguyen<\/a>, program director of the Labor Futures Initiative at Data & Society, a nonprofit focused on public policy and emerging technology.<\/p>\n At least eight states have increased penalties for package theft to a felony in the last five years,\u00a0reports<\/a>\u00a0Business Insider. The increase in legislation and penalties appears to be excessive, in Nguyen\u2019s view, because currently available research does not demonstrate that porch piracy is increasing.<\/p>\n By mid-October,\u00a0four months or so since the Akron City Council announced its Ring pilot program, all but six of the 460 video doorbells had been distributed, Akron City Council Chief of Staff Joan Williams told Undark by email.<\/p>\n \u201cIn response to the high demand for the cameras, we are exploring the possibility of expanding the scope of the program in the first quarter of 2024,\u201d Williams wrote.<\/p>\n Even so, \u201cwhile we constantly look for opportunities to utilize technology, including Ring Doorbell Cams, where available, there have yet to be any specific cases involving Ring that have directly assisted, per the detectives,\u201d according to an email statement provided Michael Miller, a public information officer with the Akron Police Department.<\/p>\n Only one day after the June 26 shootout on Gridley Avenue that injured the two women, an 80-year-old pastor was caught in the crossfire of a drive-by shooting in Akron. The elderly man was reportedly helping a woman change her tire in front of her home when three men pulled up in a red SUV, and opened fire,\u00a0according<\/a>\u00a0to Cleveland 19 News.<\/p>\n Once again, the shooting was recorded by a neighbor\u2019s video doorbell camera. No arrests have been reported.<\/p>\n This article was originally published on Undark<\/a>. Read the original article<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n