Ring has terminated its planned partnership with police surveillance technology company Flock Safety, citing the need for significantly more resources and time than anticipated. The integration never launched, and no Ring customer videos were ever sent to Flock Safety.
What Was the Partnership?
Ring and Flock Safety announced their intention to work together in October 2025 on an integration with Ring’s Community Requests feature, which allows law enforcement agencies to submit video requests to Ring camera owners. Flock operates one of the nation’s largest networks of automated license plate reading systems, with cameras mounted in thousands of communities across the U.S. that capture billions of photos of license plates monthly.
Why Did the Partnership End?
The backlash intensified following a 30-second Ring Super Bowl advertisement featuring a lost dog being found through a network of neighborhood cameras. The ad sparked widespread concern about potential dystopian surveillance capabilities. Viewers expressed alarm on social media about whether the technology could be used to track humans, with some threatening to destroy or abandon their Ring devices.
Senator Edward Markey of Massachusetts urged Amazon to discontinue its “Familiar Faces” facial recognition technology, citing public opposition to Ring’s surveillance methods. The Electronic Frontier Foundation warned about combining face recognition with neighborhood search capabilities, expressing concerns about unprecedented privacy violations.
Flock’s Broader Controversy
Beyond the Ring partnership, Flock has faced public outcry following the Trump administration’s aggressive immigration enforcement crackdown. While Flock maintains it does not partner directly with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and paused pilot programs with Customs and Border Protection and Homeland Security Investigations, the company acknowledges that it cannot prevent local law enforcement agencies from sharing captured data with federal agencies.
Moving Forward
Both companies stated the decision allows them to “best serve their respective customers,” with Flock emphasizing its commitment to supporting law enforcement with tools “fully configurable to local laws and policies.” Ring’s Community Requests feature, which also integrates with Axon, will continue operating independently of the canceled Flock integration.
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