HOUSTON – Home security cameras are an effective crime-fighting tool, and perhaps the best-known home video system currently is the Ring Video Doorbell.
It not only records video but also links homeowners together through it’s “Neighbors” app which has been used to catch porch pirates and burglars across the nation by sharing video, photos and text.
Now, Houston police are partnering with Ring to join the “Neighbors” app and make it more effective.
The partnership will “monitor neighborhood activity, share crime and safety-related videos, photos and text-based posts, and receive regional safety alerts from local law enforcement in real time,” said Houston Police Commander Glenn Yorek.
Ring’s partnership with HPD brings together one of the country’s largest police departments with one of the largest home security networks.
"With neighbors, you can get real-time crime and safety alerts from you actual neighbors, from people who live in your neighborhood -- from the Ring team, our internal news team and now from local law enforcement, which in this case is the Houston Police Department," said Eric Kuhn general manager of the “Neighbors” app.
As shown earlier this month, many homeowners including Franchele Young are already registering their home security cameras with individual police departments.
“To have a partnership with local law enforcement that would allow me or anyone to, you know, share in the effort of keeping our neighborhood more safer, that's a win," Young said.
And if you don’t own a Ring doorbell, that’s alright, too. You can download the Neighbors app on your cellphone and receive the same alerts and videos. To download, Click the link here or text "HPD" to 555888 from your smartphone.