ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — A St. Johns County Sheriff’s office Facebook post this week encourages people to connect to a community partnership by registering or integrating their home surveillance cameras.
The ability to connect home cameras, such as Ring cameras, to law enforcement agencies has been around for a few years.
A St. Johns County Sheriff’s spokesman tells First Coast News that by registering your home camera, you are informing the agency that there is a camera at your location in case officers would ever need to reach out for information gathered on that camera for an investigation.
It’s been helpful for investigators in the past. For example, police have "found information to recover children that have been abducted," internet security expert Chris Hamer said.
He confirms that simply registering a camera does not allow the law enforcement agency to tap into your camera feed.
"You’re not granting them access to it. 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.
However, the topic can become more complex. Home security camera companies have made news across the county for handing over video from home cameras to law enforcement, without asking the camera owners first.
"The complexity of this is the cloud storage system is not your computer. It’s your data on someone else’s computer," Hamer said.
And he said that depending on the camera company or service provider, that service agreement you agreed to, may allow the use of your videos especially, if subpoenaed.