Ring thinks smart cams + getting to know our neighbours can fight crime
Ring’s doing its bit for smart home security and that includes putting out a survey of Brits that found that people who talk to their neighbours regularly are four times more likely to feel safe where they live than people who don’t.
The video doorbell and security camera maker, now owned by Amazon, has also been working with British police on trials such as one with 250 Ring doorbells in Ipswich, Suffolk which has already lead to two arrests and convictions of local burglars.
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Back to the survey, which it’s describing as ‘home insecurities’, and respondents said they spent 18 minutes a day worrying about the security of their home. One in six people reported feeling less safe than they did two years ago.
Of course, a home security company would be asking this but 34% said that more CCTV in the neighbourhood would make them feel safer while 26% said they’d feel safer if they knew their neighbours better.
Unsurprisingly, Brits tend to chat to their neighbours less than people living elsewhere in Europe – only 24% of people surveyed say they do it regularly versus 43% in France and 45% in Germany.
Connect that neighbourhood watch
There’s nothing that’ll make people chat on the street more than a common enemy but it doesn’t have to be just chinwagging on the doorstep. Dave Ward, European product director for Ring, told us he couldn’t confirm whether Ring is planning to roll out its popular Neighbors app in the UK and Europe but said it’s something the company is looking at.
Launched in May in 2018, the free app, for iOS and Android, lets residents, local police and Ring’s own teams post and share text, images and camera recordings as real time crime and safety alerts in the neighbourhood and what’s nice is that you don’t need a Ring device to use it.
A sort of connected neighbourhood watch, it makes even more sense when you consider Amazon’s wider in-home delivery plans which allow couriers to enter homes with packages via smart locks and recorded by smart security camera. In the same vein, Vivint’s Streety app – again US only – lets you share feeds from security cameras from different smart home brands.
With the Ring Protect paid subscription (which is pretty affordable at $3 a month), you can store and share Ring videos with neighbours or police for up to 60 days in places like the UK. Considering these survey findings, we think launching the Neighbors app would be a great next step for Ring in Europe.
