July 30, 2025
Axon is partnering with Ring to reinstate police access to doorbell footage without the procurement of a warrant.
Amazon’s Ring has quietly undone its earlier privacy policy that bars police access to private video. The company is partnering with Axon to aid law enforcement in what it’s calling evidence management.
The change was announced during Axon Week 2025. Axon is framing the partnership as part of a push into community-sourced evidence.
CEO Rick Smith spoke about the company’s integration with Ring to reinstate its “Request for Assistance” feature, and other systems to support its Fusus real-time public safety network.
“Technology alone doesn’t build safer communities; people do,” Smith said.
The move marks a significant reversal for Ring, which, under its previous leadership, sought to distance itself from law enforcement.
In 2024, Ring dismantled its “Request for Assistance” feature in the Neighbors app after fierce backlash over privacy concerns. The “Request for Assistance” feature allowed law enforcement to access Ring users’ videos without a warrant during investigations.
The new system routes requests through Axon’s secure platform and users can opt in to share short recordings. Ring founder Jamie Siminoff, who returned to lead the company in April, framed the change as a return to the brand’s original mission of “making neighborhoods safer.”
This integration with Axon will foster a vital connection between our neighbors and public safety agencies in their communities, giving them a way to work together to keep their neighborhoods safe,” Siminoff said in an April announcement.
Footage is encrypted once submitted and only added with the user’s consent. Axon said it will not reveal which users declined to share. Though Ring now routes requests through a secure system, previous iterations of the feature were subject to multiple data breaches.
Additionally, the company was investigated by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) over allegations of employee hacking and sharing user footage. Ring settled with the agency for $5.8 million.
Internally, employees have expressed unease. Some told Business Insider they worry Ring customers may not fully understand the implications of consenting to share footage with police. Others question whether AI-powered alert systems could amplify bias.
Civil rights groups say the new arrangement could perpetuate a surveillance culture.
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