Ring partners with Flock Safety to let law enforcement request doorbell footage — privacy concerns arise

Amazon-owned Ring has announced a partnership with surveillance company Flock Safety that allows public safety agencies using Flock’s Nova platform or FlockOS to submit requests for footage from Ring customers via Ring’s “Community Requests” program. The process is described as optional and anonymized: agencies must provide a specific location, timeframe, a unique investigation code, and details of the incident before requests are passed to relevant users.

Ring says the request flow keeps user identities private and that camera owners choose whether to share footage. The move marks a pivot back toward working with law enforcement after several years of distancing, and comes amid other shifts at Ring — including founder Jamie Siminoff’s return to the company in April 2025 and reports that Amazon is pitching cloud and AI services to public-safety customers.

• Who can request footage: public safety agencies on Flock’s Nova or FlockOS platforms.
• What’s required: specific location & timeframe, investigation code, and incident details.
• User protections: requests are optional and identities are kept anonymous during the process.

Privacy advocates and some users may still be concerned. Reporting has noted that Flock’s network and surveillance tools have been used by federal agencies such as ICE, and that employees from other government branches reportedly had access to Flock’s network — details that make any tighter connection between two large camera networks more sensitive.

For more background, see the coverage at Engadget and visit Flock Safety or Ring for official info.

As with many surveillance and smart-home stories, this is a balance between public safety tools and individual privacy rights. Even if the sharing flow is optional, the ease of cross-network requests and the involvement of firms with prior law enforcement use histories may change user expectations about how and when footage can be requested.

Discussion: Do you feel comfortable with optional, anonymized camera requests from law enforcement — or does this partnership make you rethink having a Ring device at home?