Tell Amazon: Drop police partnerships

Amazon’s Ring and police across the country would like us to buy into the idea that more surveillance equals more safety. But domestic violence advocates argue that police interventions often escalate violence rather than stop it, and that families in danger need emergency housing, support, and resources – not video doorbells.

Tell Jamie Siminoff, CEO Ring, Amazon, to stop partnering with police and start working with experts in domestic violence to help victims and families.

Amazon markets Ring heavily even without evidence it can help victims of domestic violence. Since its creation Ring has pursued police partnerships to sell their concept of surveillance as safety. Now Ring is adding domestic violence partnerships with more than 1,800 law enforcement agencies and 360 fire departments across the U.S., providing free doorbell cameras in exchange for promoting Ring and the Neighbors app.

But police intervention often escalates domestic violence, rather than stops it. [1]

In 2008 Derek Chauvin, the racist officer who murdered George Floyd, responded to a domestic violence call by busting down the door of Ira Toles’s bathroom and shooting him at close range. The police violence left the household traumatized. [2]

Amazon’s Ring may very well make violent police escalation easier and more frequent. And the impact will be felt more harshly in Black and brown communities.

Domestic violence has spiked under COVID-19 conditions, disproportionately affecting Black and brown households with less money, since economic independence is a critical factor in violence prevention. [3]

If Amazon wants to make a positive contribution to preventing domestic violence and supporting its victims, the company should work with experts rather than the police.

Sources:

1. “Police Are Giving Amazon Ring Cameras to Survivors of Domestic Violence. Is It Helping?” Type Investigations, September 20, 2021.
https://www.typeinvestigations.org/investigation/2021/09/20/police-are-giving-amazon-ring-cameras-to-survivors-of-domestic-violence-is-it-helping/

2. “Minneapolis Man: Cop Who Kneeled on George Floyd ‘Tried to Kill Me’ in 2008.” The Daily Beast, May 29, 2020.
https://www.thedailybeast.com/minneapolis-man-alleges-derek-chauvin-tried-to-kill-him-before-he-kneeled-on-george-floyd

3. “A Pandemic Within a Pandemic — Intimate Partner Violence during Covid-19.” The New England Journal of Medicine, December 10, 2020.
https://www.nejm.org/doi/full/10.1056/NEJMp2024046