This week, the St. Johns County Sheriff’s office published a Facebook post encouraging people to join a community partnership by registering or integrating their home security cameras.
It has been possible for a few years to link home security cameras, like Ring cameras, to law enforcement organizations.
A spokesman for the St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office tells First Coast News that by registering your home camera, you are alerting the department to the presence of the device in case officers ever need to get in touch with you for information obtained on that camera during an investigation.
For investigators in the past, it has been useful. For example, police have “found information to recover children that have been abducted,” internet security expert Chris Hamer said.
He affirms that simply registering a camera with a law enforcement agency does not give them access to your camera feed.
“They don’t have access to it because of you. You’re simply notifying them that there’s a camera at that location,” Hamer said.
But he adds, “Do not volunteer that information if you’re not willing to participate” in an investigation.
The subject could, nevertheless, get trickier. Companies that provide home security cameras have garnered national attention for giving law enforcement access to video without first getting permission from the cameras’ owners.
“Because your computer is not involved in this complexity, think about the cloud storage system. It’s your data on someone else’s computer,” Hamer said.
And he added that, depending on the camera manufacturer or service provider, the service agreement you signed may permit the use of your videos, particularly if a subpoena is issued.
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Source: firstcoastnews
