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NEW: Map of over 230 police agencies partnering with Amazon Ring: sgandlur.com/ring-map/
Ring, acquired by Amazon in February 2018, is a home security company that sells products such as outdoor motion cameras and doorbell cameras. Last year, they released the app Neighbors by Ring, which they describe as "the new neighborhood watch."
Ring started partnering with police agencies last year. One of the first police agencies to sign up was Fort Lauderdale in May 2018. nextdoor.com/agency-post/fl…
As reported by @carolineha_, these partnerships give police agencies access to a portal in which they can request camera footage. In exchange, police officers essentially become shills for Ring. vice.com/en_us/article/…
Some cities even subsidize Ring cameras for their residents using taxpayer dollars. vice.com/en_us/article/…
Ring says that its mission is to "reduce crime in neighborhoods." These are marketing materials obtained from a FOIA request to the Addison, IL police department touting success stories. 
Critics, however, argue that the Neighbors app increases mistrust of one's community, and heightens prevalence of racial profiling vice.com/en_us/article/…
That's in addition to criticism that Amazon Ring creates "an unaccountable, for-profit surveillance empire" and a "privately run surveillance dragnet," as @evan_greer puts it vice.com/en_us/article/…
and aside from Amazon Ring having access to real-time 911 caller data. gizmodo.com/cops-are-givin…
Ring has repeatedly declined to provide information about the number of partnerships it has, but according to a police memo @dellcam obtained, it's "over 225 law enforcement agencies." gizmodo.com/everything-cop…
I went through hundreds of press releases and news stories to compile this map, which contains over 230 police agencies that are currently partnered with Ring: sgandlur.com/ring-map/
There are some caveats. I only include partnerships related to the Neighbors by Ring app. So, for example, Tehachapi, CA and its $5000 subsidy program are not on the map because I didn't find any information about them using Neighbors by Ring. liveuptehachapi.com/CivicAlerts.as…
I also don't include partnerships in the works. This excludes, e.g., Papillion, NE. omaha.com/sarpy/papillio…
Finally, the memo about over 225 agencies is from April. New partnerships are announced very frequently. See for yourself: twitter.com/search?f=tweet…
(searching on Twitter like this works, btw, because Amazon dictates what cops say about Ring) gizmodo.com/everything-cop…
I'll be updating the map frequently as more agencies join. If you find anything missing or anything incorrect, please let me know!
Feel free to use the map wherever, but please link back to this thread or the blog post.
cc: @carolineha_ @dellcam who have been killing it on this beat and are must follows (corrected typo)
New. Agencies. Every. Day.
Found by searching "excited to join neighbors by ring" on Twitter as mentioned before twitter.com/search?q=excit…
Will update map shortly
Updated. This is the first agency I’ve found in Arkansas
