Ring security system partners with PVPD to increase neighborhood security

Ring, the Amazon-owned security system company, partnered with the Prairie Village Police Department to provide more neighborhood security.

The link between the department and individuals is optional, so there is no data for how many residents have Rings, but they do know there is a lot, according to Detective Caroline Van Cil from the Prairie Village Police Department.

Since the partnership was put into place in May, confusion has been expressed when requests arise as to what the police department has access to in regards to personal footage. 

Ring has an app called Neighbors, which keeps the public updated about their neighborhood and helps to connect the police department to Ring users. 

While trying to solve a case, detectives request footage through the Neighbors app based on what houses were around the crime that occurred. Residents in the neighborhood can then comment or send in videos from their cameras. 

Detective Van Cil once received a response from an anonymous Ring account wondering why they were invading his privacy.

“My response back to it was ‘it’s all voluntary,’” Van Cil said. “You don’t have to give me anything, and I don’t think he knew that, but again it’s not me invading anyone’s privacy . . . I can’t link into anyone’s accounts or anything like that. It’s all voluntary basis.” 

Users receive requests for footage, which they can decline or accept. They have full control over who views their Ring footage.

Those who do share their footage have the ability to assist in the detective work and speed up the process of finding criminals. A robbery case that Van Cil worked on was solved after sending out a request on the app.

“We were able to narrow down our car and our suspect because of people sending in all these videos,” Van Cil said. “[The partnership has] helped us in the fact that there’s been less lag time between the crime occurring and us possibly identifying either a suspect or vehicle so it’s definitely helped. We love it.”

The Neighbors app has also created better public knowledge of what’s going on in the area, according to Van Cil. The feed within the app allows users to post when they have concerns or there’s an oddity occuring, so their neighbors are aware. 

“Maybe more than anything [the benefit] was just the awareness to what’s going on in the neighborhood,” East parent Vanessa Nyhus said. “[Neighbors will] post a video like, ’here was somebody who walked across my yard last night or somebody who was trying to open the car doors in the driveway does anybody recognize them.’”

Senior Kala Christian and her family got a Ring because of a few break-in instances around her neighborhood. The ring has helped their family feel safer overall, with a sense of security in the fact that they would be able to catch the suspect on camera.

“I’m like a scaredy cat, I don’t like being home alone if I’ve just heard of something scary so it definitely makes me feel more safe just because if anything happens we’ll have footage of it,” Christian said. 

In the future, Van Cil is hoping the public has better knowledge of what the partnership with Ring is trying to do — provide a more secure neighborhood. 

“The only problem would be the misconception of what exactly we do and what we have access to,” Van Cil said. “But then again the upside to it is we let these people know and then they send us stuff and then we solve crimes . . . I don’t think we’ll ever have access to people’s cameras and quite honestly I don’t want to have access to people’s cameras, but I think [in the future] the users will have better knowledge of what it is and what we’re trying to do.”