This case is a great example of why you should never open your door to anyone you don’t intend on allowing into your home. That’s the purpose of doorbell cameras, after all. Police in Greenville, North Carolina approached a woman who had a Ring camera on her house in the belief that the camera caught video evidence of a crime. They demanded she show them the video, and she refused, claiming the camera didn’t record. There are numerous reasons for this. You can set Ring cameras to record on motion, and it’s entirely possible that the camera simply didn’t record the incident because the motion was too far away to trigger the motion sensor. Even so, I wouldn’t want cops going through my phone. So the answer from me is going to be no.
The cop replied, “Listen to me, you pull it up and show me that it isn’t working, or I will rip it off the wall, get a warrant, and I will keep you up all night.”
- First, ripping the camera off the wall won’t get you any footage. It’s an Internet camera. My cameras aren’t Ring cameras, but they don’t store any footage. Either this cop is a dumbass, or is going to destroy the camera because she can.
Listen:
So what did the cops do? They entered the home, took the woman’s phone, forcibly unlocked it, and stole the video, all without a warrant. The woman wasn’t suspected of committing a crime.
At some point, you are tempted to wonder if the officers are wearing Level IV plates, or if the plates they do happen to be wearing are capable of stopping .308 or .300 Blackout.
Look, I am not against it. I once had a thief in my neighborhood and the cops believed my cameras might have caught the thief on film. They contacted me while I was on vacation in Colorado and ASKED me for footage. they were a bit panicked because they were afraid the video would get deleted before I got back. They wanted me to give them permission to enter the home and get the hard drive. I refused, but I assured them it would not. I reviewed my videos, pulled up the relevant footage, copied it to a USB drive, and handed it over. They wound up catching and convicting the guy.
He was charged with 9 felonies, including arson, armed burglary, several counts of grand larceny, and theft of a firearm. He reached a plea agreement where he got 6 months’ probation and his records were sealed.
Then it became a habit. After that, the cops came over for every single incident that occurred anywhere near my house and wanted my camera footage. The cops wouldn’t even reimburse me for the USB drives. It started getting expensive after the 5th or 6th time, both in free USB drives and in the use of my time. I told them I should be eligible for a crime stoppers award. When they refused, I eventually had to tell them to get bent. I’m not going to keep doing your jobs for you for free, the cops were getting paid while I did their jobs for them at my expense.
I want to see cops defend the cops’ actions at this point. The person here wasn’t suspected of a crime. They weren’t even awake- it was 3am. The cops are investigating.
I will say it again- qualified immunity needs to be replaced with a requirement for liability insurance. The dirty little secret is there is no law establishing qualified immunity. That particular little benefit for dirty cops was created by the courts, who supposedly don’t have the power to make law, in a blatant example of legislating from the bench.
I ran a travel agency, and Florida law REQUIRES a bond in order to do so. Don’t you think liability for police with the power to take your life is more important than insurance for the travel agent who can ruin your vacation?
Here is another video on the incident, but it includes actual Ring camera video and some applicable court cases.
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