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Comment by r00fus | Hacker News Reader

Has there been any records/stories of police actually catching and holding the assailants accountable using Ring?

I know that there's a lot of (possibly astroturfed) youtubes out there about thefts being deterred but what are the actual stats?

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I'm a crime researcher in Chicago and I work mainly on aggravated battery (shooting) and homicide cases. There have been many homicide and shooting investigations that have been substantially aided by Ring footage (always received with the (often enthusiastic) consent of the homeowner). But it typically takes at least 3 years before homicide cases are tried in court, and no responsible law enforcement agency would release information that could impede cases, so it will be a while before any agency does this kind of analysis and decides to publish it (very unlikely without being incentivized by a consent decree or something). A lot of people (read: relatively well-off (white) people who live in safe neighborhoods) are pretty irrational about cameras and law enforcement in general, but the people who live in the neighborhoods where homicides and shootings happen generally hate living with the constant possibility of their loved ones being accidentally shot in a spontaneous shooting, they want these threats removed from their community, and it's much easier and safer to provide footage rather than testify as a witness over many court dates 4+ years later.

TLDR: Yeah, there are many investigations that are only cleared because of CCTV footage, including Ring footage. No, that data isn't public.

https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2019/11/steal...

Be sure to read the whole thing.

So that's a great article about essentially a single data point.

How many of these kinds of things actually happen to prevent crimes? And how many of these are break-ins rather than package theft?

What a mean-spirited article. How dare wealthy Potrero Hill residents act upset just because their Stranger Things backpack was stolen!

( nice username tho )

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