Sea Isle City Police Seek Homeowners’ Security Cameras to Solve Crimes

SEA ISLE CITY – The Sea Isle City Police Department is requesting residents, businesses, and organizations that have security cameras in place on their property to sign up for Neighbors by Ring to help police solve crimes in the area. 
According to a release, registration is voluntary and there is no cost associated with registration.
How Neighbors App Works
The Neighbors App uses the address to create a radius around a home. If anyone shares an alert on the app about crime or safety within that radius, the homeowner get a notification on the phone and tablet. 
Conversely, if the owner shares an alert on the App about a crime or safety issue in that radius, the neighbors will also get a notification on their phones and tablets. 
The owner can then comment on these alerts to provide additional information about local issues, give tips to avoid affected areas, share photos or videos to help neighbors stay on the lookout, etc.
How it Works With Police Department
Neighbors partners with the Sea Isle City Police Department so they can share official, important crime and safety updates and work together with their local community to build trust and make neighborhoods safer.
When using Neighbors the Sea Isle City Police Department can see the same interface that all users see; the content is the same, the exact locations of posts are obfuscated, and the user’s personal identity is not displayed.
There are two key differences, though: 1) the Sea Isle City Police Department can view public posts from within their jurisdiction (instead of just their ‘neighborhood’) and 2) the Sea Isle City Police Department posts are identified so users can clearly see that they are the source of the content.
This means that posts or comments made by the Sea Isle City Police Department are clearly marked with their official title and name.
The Sea Isle City Police Department can only view the publicly available content in the Neighbors App, unless a user explicitly and voluntarily chooses to share their own recordings with the Sea Isle City Police Department.
Exact locations of devices and user information are never provided to Sea Isle City Police Department without a user’s express permission or a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us.
The Sea Isle City Police Department can request information from users within their jurisdiction (Ring sends the official request to users).
The Sea Isle City Police Department must reference a relevant case number in order to make a request within a specific, limited time range and area. 
Ring will then ask a targeted group of users in that area if they are willing to share any relevant footage with the Sea Isle City Police Department. 
It’s then up to the user to share their video file(s) or decline the request. Users can also opt-out of all future requests by the Sea Isle City Police Department. Again, Ring will not release user information without a user’s express permission or a valid and binding legal demand properly served on us.
For example if a burglary occurs down the street from one’s property, police would know that camera may have captured an image of a vehicle or suspect that could connect us to the suspects involved in the burglary. 
A detective would be able to contact the owner and ask to review the footage in hopes of identifying a suspect description or any information that can help the case. The Neighbors app will allow police to do the following:
1. Post important information about crime and safety alerts to our community (Neighbors app users in the jurisdiction).
2. View and comment on public posts within the jurisdiction as an identified Sea Isle City Police Department officer.
3. Use a Video Request tool to ask Ring to request video footage from device owners.
4. Ability to secure footage that device owners have publicly posted to the “Neighbors” app.
5. Interact with device owners regarding investigations. (This could be just to ask them to contact the Police Department to speak with them over the phone or meet with them in person).
To sign up for the free Neighbors app, click on the following link:
https://bit.ly/2WZaWTI.