Ring cancels controversial Flock integration after surveillance fears

Ring has officially canceled its planned integration with Flock Safety following intense user backlash over surveillance concerns.

In a statement published on its blog and shared first with The Verge, Ring said it made the “joint decision” to abandon the integration after determining it would require significantly more time and resources than expected. The company has emphasized that the integration never went live, and no Ring customer videos were ever sent to Flock.

Why Ring users were upset

Ring announced the Flock partnership back in October 2025 as part of its Community Requests program. The integration would have allowed law enforcement agencies using Flock’s software to submit video requests through Ring’s system.

However, Flock has reportedly allowed agencies, including ICE, to access its broader camera network, sparking fears that Ring camera footage could be indirectly made available to federal authorities without users’ knowledge. The announcement sparked severe user backlash, with some publicly pledging to ditch their Ring devices.

While the claim that Ring was directly providing footage to ICE was inaccurate because the integration never went live, Ring’s long history of partnerships with law enforcement made users very uncomfortable.

The controversy intensified during the Super Bowl, when Ring aired an ad for its new AI-powered “Search Party” feature designed to help locate lost pets. Though the company said the feature cannot identify people, the imagery of dozens of connected neighborhood cameras led to concerns about mass surveillance.

Meanwhile, Ring says its existing Community Requests feature will continue unchanged. Community Requests allows local police departments to publicly request video footage from Ring users in a specific area during active investigations. However, participation in the program is completely voluntary, and users can choose to ignore requests and decide which clips they want to share.