Amid City Council debate, CMPD says Ring doorbell video is not ‘Big Brother’
Charlotte City Council members say they want to debate privacy issues surrounding law enforcement’s use of video from Ring doorbells and cameras, a popular line of smart home security devices owned by Amazon.
The issue was raised Monday night at the City Council meeting. Charlotte resident Joseph Margolis said during the public hearing he’s concerned police nationwide have “broadly expanded their surveillance capabilities” through the Ring app. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department is one of several local agencies using the technology and officials there say the using the app will help deter crime.
CMPD officials this week pushed back, saying “Big Brother-type” concerns about the Ring technology are unfounded.
The Ring app allows your neighbors —and police — to watch recorded video from your home security doorbell, but only if you agree for the footage to be public.
Amazon’s program, first reported in the Washington Post last month, includes partnerships with more than 400 police departments to share video recordings from the Ring app to use in criminal investigations. In addition to CMPD, the Post reported that police departments in Cornelius, Mint Hill and Mooresville, N.C., also participate in the program.
Margolis says he contacted Charlotte Council members Justin Harlow and Braxton Winston with his concerns before the meeting. Harlow is the chair and Winston is vice-chair of the City Council’s neighborhood development committee, which oversees public safety. Harlow and Winston told him that they hadn’t realized CMPD was using Ring video, Margolis said.
Margolis says he also researched how other jurisdictions have used the technology. He said he wants more transparency about the Ring app’s capabilities and how detectives might use the video in Charlotte.
CMPD says the department is not yet “in the operational phase with Ring” but expects to be soon.
“The Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department believes in information sharing with the community to help prevent and fight crime,” spokeswoman Sandy D’Elosua said in an email to the Observer Wednesday.
On Wednesday, police department officials addressed concerns about privacy.
“There have been Big Brother-type concerns that we’re monitoring your cameras in real time,“ CMPD Capt. Jeff Estes told reporters at a news conference.
“There’s absolutely no real-time monitoring of your cameras. Even if you wanted us to do that, we wouldn’t,” Estes said.
Posting your Ring video is similar to posting a video on YouTube, where everyone can see it, he added.
‘Surveillance’ questioned
Several City Council members, including Winston, pushed for more discussion Monday after Margolis raised the issue.
Mayor Vi Lyles asked CMPD Deputy Chief Stella Patterson, who was in attendance, to answer some questions about Ring. But Lyles also said she wants the council to meet again in the coming weeks to fully debate the issue.
“CMPD does utilize the Ring app,” Patterson said during the meeting. “It’s called the Neighbors Ring app. It’s really a digital neighborhood watch that allows police officers and law enforcement and the public to access information free of charge.”
In July, for example, CMPD arrested a 21-year-old man on home break-in charges after a neighbor called 911 to report seeing a suspicious person at her door via a security camera on her doorbell. In a news statement later, the department said, “A proactive homeowner, a door bell camera, and a swift response from officers in the Independence Division played a role in the arrest of a suspect with a lengthy, violent criminal history.”
On Monday, before the topic was tabled, Harlow raised a question of whether Charlotte homeowners may be unwittingly allowing law enforcement access to videos from their doorsteps.
Patterson says CMPD can only see recorded video if a Ring doorbell user opts in to make the footage public for their immediate neighbors as well as law enforcement officials.
“Once you give access, it is there until you withdraw the access,” Patterson replied. “So any videos you might have related to anything that is occurring at your residence, it becomes available at that time.”
Harlow replied: “So it does increase the (police) surveillance, because then you have to opt out after the fact for anything. It’s not one off, certain time limits.”
Lyles invited both CMPD and Margolis to come back to a future work session and discuss the issue with City Council.
“We will have the conversation publicly ... But I don’t think everyone is ready to address it right now,” Lyles said Monday night.
CMPD already has video-sharing partnerships with other companies, D’Elosua said.
“We already work with members of the public to obtain videos that help our officers with investigations. We believe leveraging partnerships with residents and various organizations make our community safer,” D’Elosua said. “To that end, CMPD is open to partnering with any video-sharing residential doorbell camera companies.”
Editor’s note: This story was originally published Sept. 24 and updated Sept. 25 with additional information from CMPD about the use of the Ring app.
This story was originally published September 24, 2019 at 4:43 PM.