How Amazon convinces police to join the Ring network
Up to 250 police departments have joined Amazon's Ring Neighbors program, a neighborhood watch app, but these deals don't happen overnight. For the Chula Vista police department in California, Ring spent more than a year offering discounts and applying peer pressure with constant reminders and emails to convince officers to sign up.
The Chula Vista police department signed up for Ring's Neighbors program in May, but the courtship started in March 2018, according to documents obtained by CNET through a Freedom of Information Act request. The video doorbell company pitched the program to the police department two months before it was publicly announced.
These documents detail how Ring's staff convinced a local police department in California to join Neighbors, an app released by the company in May 2018. When police didn't respond, Ring would follow up by noting neighboring law enforcement agencies that have joined, pushing for the Chula Vista police to join them.
The tactics also offer a window into how Ring, which retail giant Amazon purchased last year for $839 million, has successfully struck partnerships with police departments across the country. Police consider it a tool for obtaining video in ongoing investigations, as well as creating surveillance networks in residential neighborhoods.
[link:https://www.cnet.com/news/how-amazon-convinces-police-to-join-ring/|
