Ring Ends Flock Safety Partnership

Amazon-owned Ring, a leading maker of smart doorbells and home security cameras, announced Thursday that it has ended a planned partnership with Flock Safety, a company specializing in automated license plate recognition and surveillance technology.

The two companies had revealed their collaboration in October, aiming to integrate Flock's systems with Ring's Community Requests feature. This would have allowed Ring camera owners to opt in to sharing video footage with law enforcement agencies during investigations. However, the integration never launched. In a blog post, Ring stated, "Following a comprehensive review, we determined the planned Flock Safety integration would require significantly more time and resources than anticipated." Both companies described the decision as mutual, emphasizing it would enable them to better serve customers. Flock confirmed no Ring customer videos were ever shared with its platform.

The announcement came days after a 30-second Ring advertisement aired during the Super Bowl, which depicted a lost dog being located through a network of neighborhood cameras using artificial intelligence. The ad promoted Ring's Search Party feature, designed to...