A new collaboration between Amazon’s Ring and surveillance tech company Flock Safety is raising eyebrows and serious questions about privacy, data security, and the future of community policing.
When you installed that Ring doorbell on your front porch, you probably thought you were just keeping an eye on package thieves. But a newly announced partnership between Amazon’s Ring and Flock Safety is transforming millions of home security cameras into potential evidence-gathering tools for law enforcement. The collaboration, announced on October 16, 2025, has privacy advocates sounding the alarm while police departments are celebrating what they see as a breakthrough in community safety.
The Partnership Explained
Here’s how it works. Flock Safety and Ring have integrated their systems to allow law enforcement agencies using Flock’s software to request video footage directly from Ring camera owners. When police are investigating a case, they can use Flock’s platform to send a post in the Ring Neighbors app with details about what they’re looking for.
Each request must include specific information: the location and timeframe of the incident, a unique investigation code, and details about what’s being investigated. Ring owners can then choose whether to share their footage or ignore the request entirely. It’s voluntary. At least, that’s what the companies emphasize.
“We’re thrilled to partner with Ring to make the process of requesting more information from the community faster, more efficient, and fully auditable, all while respecting individual privacy,” said Garrett Langley, CEO and Founder of Flock Safety, in the official announcement.
Who Is Flock Safety?
If you haven’t heard of Flock Safety, you’re not alone. But law enforcement agencies across America know them well. The Atlanta-based company has become a powerhouse in the surveillance technology sector, recently raising $275 million at a $7.5 billion valuation.
Flock’s bread and butter? License plate recognition cameras. These aren’t your average traffic cameras. They scan license plates and capture other identifying information about vehicles, creating what the company calls a “vehicle fingerprint.” This includes make, model, color, bumper stickers, roof racks basically anything that makes your car distinctive.
But Flock’s capabilities go beyond just reading plates. According to The Record, their new Flock Nova product combines license plate recognition with information from data brokers and open-source intelligence. Law enforcement using Flock products can access a shared national database of license plate images and locations.
The numbers are staggering. Flock Safety works with an estimated 6,000 communities and 5,000 law enforcement agencies across the United States. That’s a massive surveillance network and now it’s potentially connecting with millions of Ring cameras.
The Controversy: ICE, Federal Agencies, and Privacy Concerns
The timing of this partnership announcement couldn’t be more controversial. On the same day Ring and Flock revealed their collaboration, 404 Media reported that ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement), the Secret Service, and the Navy had access to Flock’s network of cameras.
This revelation has privacy advocates deeply concerned. By partnering with Ring, Flock could potentially access footage from millions more cameras. A 2023 Politico report estimated that 10 million Americans own Ring cameras for their homes.
“Of course people have a right to be safe, but what companies like Flock and Ring fail to acknowledge is that their technology doesn’t make people safer, it just subjects them to a round-the-clock warrantless digital dragnet that keeps tabs on everyone whether or not they’re suspected of any crime,” said Electronic Frontier Foundation senior staff attorney Jennifer Pinsof in an interview with CNBC. “That’s an affront to our freedoms, and a recipe for abuse and real harm especially in increasingly authoritarian times.”
Ring’s Troubled History with Privacy
This isn’t Ring’s first rodeo with privacy controversies. The company has a checkered past when it comes to protecting customer data and privacy.
In 2023, the Federal Trade Commission ordered Ring to pay $5.8 million over claims that employees and contractors had unrestricted access to customers’ videos for years. That’s right—Ring workers could watch your private footage without proper safeguards in place.
The company also previously ran a program called “Request for Assistance” that allowed police to request footage directly from Ring users. That program was used by at least 2,500 police agencies before Ring shut it down in January 2024 following complaints from privacy advocates and politicians.
So what’s different this time? According to Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley, the key difference is chain of custody. “RFA was inside the Ring data app. There was no chain of custody,” Langley told CNBC. “In this case, while the request goes out in the Ring app, any footage shared by users goes into the Flock platform, which is fully secure.”
How the Technology Actually Works
Let’s break down the technical details. When a law enforcement officer wants to request footage, they use Flock’s software either FlockOS or the newer Flock Nova platform to create what’s called a “Community Request.”
This request gets posted in the Ring Neighbors app, which is Ring’s community safety platform where users can share information about local incidents. Ring owners in the relevant area receive a notification about the request. They can view it anonymously and decide whether to share footage.
If a Ring owner chooses to help, their footage is “securely packaged by Flock” and shared directly with the requesting agency through the Flock platform. According to the official announcement, all actions within Flock Nova and FlockOS are permanently recorded in a comprehensive CJIS-compliant audit trail for unalterable custody tracking. All Community Requests will be publicly logged in Ring Neighbors.
CJIS stands for Criminal Justice Information Services, and compliance with their standards is supposed to ensure proper handling of criminal justice information. But critics argue that technical safeguards don’t address the fundamental privacy concerns.
The AI Factor: Facial Recognition and Bias
Here’s where things get even more complicated. Flock’s technology doesn’t just capture images it uses artificial intelligence to analyze them. According to TechCrunch, Flock’s government and police customers can make natural language searches of their video footage to find people who match specific descriptions.
The problem? AI-powered technology used by law enforcement has been proven to exacerbate racial biases. Studies have shown that facial recognition technology is less accurate at identifying people of color, leading to misidentifications and wrongful arrests.
This isn’t just theoretical. There have been documented cases of people being wrongly arrested because facial recognition technology misidentified them. When you combine potentially biased AI with a massive surveillance network, the risks multiply.
Law Enforcement’s Perspective
Not everyone sees this partnership as problematic. Police departments and law enforcement advocates argue that these tools are essential for solving crimes and keeping communities safe.
“I can say our folks who utilize that technology, it has been instrumental in catching very violent and bad folks, getting them off the streets of Oklahoma City,” Mark Nelson, president of the Oklahoma City Fraternal Order of Police, told KOCO.
Flock Safety CEO Garrett Langley frames the issue in stark terms. “For me, it is clear and obvious we have a crime problem in America,” Langley told CNBC. “Everyone has the right to be safe and people should be held accountable if they commit a crime.”
Langley also argues that the new system is actually better for citizens than the old way of doing things. “If there’s a shooting in my neighborhood today and police go door-to-door asking if you have camera footage, it can create an environment where it is hard to say no,” he explained. “This is an environment where people will have control. They don’t have to participate in any specific request.”
Jamie Siminoff, founder and Chief Inventor of Ring, echoed this sentiment in the official announcement: “Ring’s mission of making neighborhoods safer is rooted in the power of community collaboration. Ring cameras and the Neighbors app have become important tools for neighborhood safety.”
When Surveillance Goes Wrong
Despite assurances about safeguards and accountability, there have been documented cases of surveillance technology being misused. ABC News reported that a police chief in Kansas City admitted to using Flock technology to track his ex-girlfriend 228 times.
In another disturbing case, an Illinois police department shared Flock data with a Texas sheriff about a missing woman all after her family said she underwent a self-administered abortion. These aren’t hypothetical scenarios. They’re real examples of how surveillance tools can be weaponized for purposes far beyond their stated intent.
In response to these concerns, Flock Safety now says it rejects searches that include words like “abortion,” “immigration,” or “ICE.” But critics argue that keyword filtering is a band-aid solution that doesn’t address the fundamental problem of mass surveillance.
The Business of Surveillance
Follow the money, and you’ll see why companies are so eager to get into the law enforcement technology market. It’s an $11 billion industry, according to Forbes.
Amazon has been particularly aggressive in courting law enforcement customers. Public records obtained by Forbes reveal that Amazon Web Services has been pitching everything from AI drone surveillance to gun detection software to real-time crime center technology to police departments across the country.
The Ring-Flock partnership fits into this broader strategy. While Flock Safety says the partnership will be offered for free to every law enforcement customer, Langley told CNBC that “if we achieve the mission of helping communities, we will find ways to make money. We won’t monetize this partnership, but we believe it will drive adoption of core products.”
In other words, the free integration is a loss leader designed to get more police departments using Flock’s platform and paying for other services.
What This Means for You
If you own a Ring camera, you’re probably wondering what this means for your privacy and your footage. Here’s what you need to know:
First, participation is voluntary. You can choose to ignore any Community Requests from law enforcement. You’re not legally obligated to share your footage unless police have a warrant.
Second, the requests will be visible in the Ring Neighbors app, so you’ll know when law enforcement is asking for footage in your area. Each request must include specific details about what’s being investigated.
Third, if you do choose to share footage, it will be handled through Flock’s platform with what the companies describe as proper chain of custody and audit trails.
But here’s what the companies aren’t emphasizing: Once you share footage, you lose control over how it’s used. While the footage is supposed to be used only for the specific investigation mentioned in the request, there’s no way for you to verify that’s actually happening.
The Bigger Picture: Surveillance Society
This partnership is about more than just Ring cameras and Flock Safety. It’s part of a broader trend toward what critics call a “surveillance society” a world where our movements, activities, and behaviors are constantly monitored and recorded.
We’re already living in this world to some extent. License plate readers track our cars. Security cameras watch us in stores and on streets. Our phones track our locations. Social media companies monitor our online behavior. The question isn’t whether we’re being surveilled it’s how much surveillance we’re willing to accept in exchange for convenience and security.
The Ring-Flock partnership represents a new frontier: turning private citizens’ home security cameras into nodes in a law enforcement surveillance network. Even if participation is voluntary, the sheer scale of the network potentially millions of cameras creates unprecedented surveillance capabilities.
What Happens Next
The expansion of Ring Community Requests to Flock Nova and FlockOS will take place “in the coming months,” according to the official announcement. An exact rollout date hasn’t been set, but Flock Safety says it’s imminent.
This partnership is likely to face legal challenges and regulatory scrutiny. Privacy advocates are already calling for stronger oversight of surveillance technologies. Some communities have banned or restricted the use of facial recognition technology and automated license plate readers.
The debate over this partnership reflects a fundamental tension in American society: How do we balance public safety with individual privacy? How much surveillance are we willing to accept? And who gets to decide?
These aren’t easy questions, and there are no simple answers. But one thing is clear: The partnership between Ring and Flock Safety is transforming the landscape of community policing and surveillance in America. Whether that’s a good thing or a dangerous development depends on who you ask.
The Bottom Line
The Ring-Flock Safety partnership represents a significant expansion of law enforcement’s ability to access private surveillance footage. While the companies emphasize voluntary participation and privacy protections, critics worry about creating a massive surveillance network that could be misused or abused.
For Ring owners, the key is understanding what you’re agreeing to and making informed decisions about whether to share your footage. For everyone else, this partnership is a reminder that the devices we install for our own security can become part of much larger surveillance systems.
As this technology rolls out in the coming months, expect continued debate about privacy, security, and the role of surveillance in American society. This story is far from over.
Sources
- Amazon’s Ring to partner with Flock, a network of AI cameras used by ICE, feds, and police – TechCrunch
- Ring to partner with Flock, giving law enforcement easier access to home security camera footage – Hendry Adrian
- Flock Safety and Ring Announce Partnership to Enable Community Requests and Improve Neighborhood Safety – Globe Newswire
- Amazon Ring security cameras moving deeper into law enforcement with Flock Safety, Axon deals – CNBC
- Ring to partner with Flock, giving law enforcement easier access to home security camera footage – The Record
- Flock Safety pauses partnership with federal agencies amid concerns about cameras being misused – KOCO
- Inside Amazon’s Aggressive Push To Get Cops Using AI Surveillance – Forbes
- Flock Safety Raises $275 Million – Globe Newswire
