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Southampton town Police have joined the neighborhood watch network through the Ring app.
Communities win and criminals lose, Southampton Town Police Chief Steven Skrynecki said. The department has joined the Neighbors App by Ring — Amazon’s smart doorbell company, which offers real-time crime and safety information in a hyper local fashion.
The app, which is free to download and use, lets people share and view information posted about safety concerns or crime in their neighborhoods, including videos and pictures captured by the Ring camera doorbells.
“Information sharing is a vital part to community safety,” the chief said. “This program creates a virtual neighborhood watch, connecting communities with each other and the police.”
The Southampton Town Police Department is proud to work with Ring through the Neighbors App to help open the lines of communication between local police and the communities they serve, a statement from the department reads.
“We believe when we work with our community our neighborhoods become safer,” the statement says.
Police can view and comment on public Neighbors app posts within their jurisdiction to connect with and help members of the community. They can post official updates to help their community to stay informed about issues that may potentially affect residents. Also, users may provide helpful information if police ask for assistance with an investigation. Users can choose whether to share videos, or opt out of future requests.
The process has been designed to ensure that no user information is shared with the police unless the user chooses to do so, including whether or not they received a request. Posts can be made anonymously and only posts deemed “Neighbors-worthy,” per their terms of service, are permitted. Neighbors-worthy posts might pertain to suspicious activity, crime, safety, and even lost pets.
Posts show up in two spots in the app: on a map of the designated area and in a timeline, along with photos and video, if the user chooses to share them. You do not have to share photos or video to create a Neighbors post.
Owners of Ring doorbells and security cameras use it to post videos of suspicious activity that their cameras picked up.
The app is built into Ring devices — the doorbell, camera, alarm system or even Ring lights. But it’s also offered free, as a standalone app for ios or Android devices.
Crime statistics in cities where neighborhood watch apps are in use haven’t demonstrated a decrease in incidences. Still, in Southampton in 2017, footage from a home security camera helped police capture a couple who were stealing packages from Hampton Bays residences.
