Police embrace technology that could help solve neighborhood crimes
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WOODFIN, NC (WLOS ) — Across the mountains, video doorbell cameras give neighborhoods an extra set of eyes.
In fact, hundreds of police departments across the country have partnered with Ring, part of what the company calls “The New Neighborhood Watch.”
“Little things add up and if it happened to you, it might have happened to someone else in the area,” said Chief Michael Dykes.
His department has embraced the tool and seized the Ring partnership.
“We are the first in the area to take this partnership and we see it again as information sharing, and that’s really the crux of our job when it comes to solving crime,” Dykes told News 13.
With the Ring portal, Woodfin Police Department have a window to incidents happening in the area.
Anyone with a smart phone can download the Neighbors app, which pulls up a map. Click on various incidents and people can see video of a stranger walking through a homeowner’s driveway in Asheville, footage of a person dubbed suspicious walking toward a house, and video of what appears to be a package being stolen.
Anyone can see incidents with the Neighbors app even if they don’t have a Ring doorbell.
Woodfin police can now help connect crimes on the Neighbors network.
“Our part is we can look at that and say, hey we have this crime that occurred in this area, does anyone have any further information?” Dykes explained.
With those capabilities, some will have privacy concerns, but Chief Dykes stressed officers won’t have access to everyone’s camera.
“That’s the thing we can’t access their private videos, we can’t just say, oh you have a Ring doorbell and we’re gonna take your video no matter what,” said Dykes.
“We’re excited about this,” he said. “We think this is going to be a great way where we can communicate with our communities and they can communicate with us and be good neighbors, help each other out and hopefully prevent things from happening in their neighborhoods.”
Ring has also contacted Asheville Police about partnering. Asheville Police spokesperson said the department will await the arrival of the new chief to discuss the potential resource.
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