Buffalo, N.Y. (WBEN) - "I've seen lots of cases with doorbell cameras in court. It's a new tool of law enforcement, " said WBEN legal expert Paul Cambria on Tuesday.
Ring doorbell cameras (owned by Amazon) have had a policy change. They are no longer allowing police to request camera footage.
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Property owners often consent and turn doorbell video over to police departments. But what if you don't want to share the video? What is your right as a homeowner and owner a doorbell camera?
"You have the right to say no," said Cambria. "But on the other hand, a judge has the ability and authority to issue a warrant for the information. These doorbell cameras have storage for a period of time, so a court could definitely issue a warrant and access your storage," he added.
It works like this. "Police would go to the court and they would request a warrant. The warrant would be executed on the company that operates your camera and if there's footage, there's footage. It it's not there, it's not there," noted Cambria.
If people are willing to do it, they just do it. Many people willingly hand it over he said. If they don't, it requires a warrant or a subpoena.
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Former Buffalo Police Captain Jeff Rinaldo, now with Vista Security Group, says the move by Ring, which was made to satisfy privacy concerns, won't completely stop police from obtaining video, it just might take longer.
"I think it's definitely going to require a little more leg work on behalf of police.
Generally, anytime you have a crime, you would do a neighborhood canvas, looking for video surveillance and knocking on doors and requesting permission from homeowners to go over the video with you."
Rinaldo said for serious crimes and violent crimes, he never had a problem trying to get a warrant for video when he was in law enforcement.