You wouldn't want to be a racist, would you?
...there's no evidence that more video surveillance footage keeps communities safer. Instead, Neighbors increases the possibility of racial profiling. It makes it easier for both private citizens and law enforcement agencies to target certain groups for suspicion of crime based on skin color, ethnicity, religion, or country of origin.
Yes, it would be evil if you learned that, say, young black males commit a massive percentage of crime compared to the rest of the American population.
What are you going to believe, the writers of a tech magazine or those lying FBI stats and video evidence from every house across the nation?
Wired is also concerned that private owners are able to forward video footage of their own free will to police. Amazon's Ring doorbell seems to draw the most ire:
This is a feature unique to Ring — even Nextdoor removed its Forward to Police feature in 2020, which allowed Nextdoor users to forward their own safety posts to local law enforcement agencies. If a crime has been committed, law enforcement should obtain a warrant to access civilian video footage.
You probably shouldn't even upload it to social media, comrade!
There's a kernel of truth to what Wired is saying: People who constantly like to report on their neighbors can easily forward video to police that could be abused without following due process. Forcing police to canvass the neighborhood and ask for footage might be a small way to stave off the surveillance state (though I doubt it).
...we occasionally end up with products that can be dangerous to you, or to society in general, which we believe to be the case with Amazon-owned Ring and its relationship with law enforcement.
There are many products I consider dangerous to society, but the Ring doorbell is near the bottom of that list.
If you have cops arrest an armed carjacker on your front lawn 10 feet from where your toddler is sleeping, like happened to me a month ago, I'm not going to worry about damaging the Narrative™ - I'm going to do everything in my power to make sure that person goes to jail for a long time.
You'll be very surprised to learn that Wired writer Adrienne So lives in Portland, Oregon.
