Wired magazine recommends against the use of Ring cameras for home security for fear of 'racial profiling'

The left's resentment of effective means for curbing crime is no longer limited to armed homeowners, robust police forces, stern criminal laws, and effective prosecutors. Now, home surveillance tech has been classed as "dangerous" and potentially racist.

Ring cameras are a popular commodity among those seeking greater security or at the very least some hope of identifying home invaders so that justice can later be meted out.

TheBlaze has previously detailed multiple occasions on which these devices and others like them have been utilized to great effect, highlighting heroics, exposing criminality, documenting statist intimidation efforts, and recording unsettling events.

The prospect that neighbors and communities can coordinate to counter crime, bolster security, report missing pets, and/or look out for one another is condemnable, at least where the tech magazine Wired is concerned.

So reported that upon installing a Ring camera, users are automatically enrolled in the optional Neighbors service.

The Neighbors app is touted as a means of helping "put an end to local crime spree."

The app "uses your address to create a radius around your home. If anyone shares an alert on the app about crime or safety within that radius, you'll get a notification on your phone and tablet. Conversely, if you share an alert on the app about a crime or safety issue in your radius, your neighbors will also get a notification on their phones and tablets."

So fears that homeowners with Ring cameras and the Neighbors app might collaborate with local police services or worse — that the devices might expose the wrong kinds of criminals.

So noted that the Neighbors app enables "Ring owners to send videos they've captured with their Ring video doorbell cameras and outdoor security cameras to law enforcement."

Despite admitting "it is legally not allowed [for police] to access your personal videos or information without your permission" and that Ring owners have the choice not to forward footage of a possible crime to police, So insinuated that law enforcement would access footage for which a warrant is needed.

So's primary concern appears to be less the fact that police might get their hands on incriminating footage but the demographics of those incriminated.

"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," wrote So. "We have been concerned about this issue since Ring started partnering with police departments to hand out free video cameras."

So further suggested, "Putting a frictionless feature directly into Neighbors makes it that much easier for Ring owners to bombard law enforcement with unsubstantiated and possibly biased alarms."

Largely for fear of bias, So recommended against purchasing Ring cameras despite their affordability, because "contributing to a just society is also a factor in keeping your family safe."

Richard Hanania, president of the Center for the Study of Partisanship and Ideology, responded to So's article, tweeting, "I absolutely love this. Ring cameras help solve and prevent crime. What's the problem? If it's too easy and solve and prevent crime, it just means you might start suspecting black people. Ergo, we should make it harder to fight crime. Liberals."

Ted Frank, director of litigation at the Hamilton Lincoln Law Institute, highlighted how Wired alternatively praised Nextdoor, which removed the feature whereby users can submit incriminating videos to the police "in, you guessed it, 2020" — around the time the "defund the police" movement kicked off in earnest.

Revolver suggested, "It's official: liberalism is not only a mental disorder, it's also a death wish."

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