It was early in the morning — before 6:00 a.m. — last August when Ali Chahine woke up in his home in Detroit’s suburbs and checked his smartphone.
What happened next highlights why an increasing number of U.S. police forces are embracing Amazon’s consumer technology as a low-cost solution to help fight crime, and shunning persistent concerns over privacy and data protection.
And the debate appears to be moving north of the border.
Chahine had received an alert overnight. Around 2:40 a.m., the camera mounted on the front of his garage in Livonia, Michigan, had sensed movement and started recording.
Watching the video on his phone, Chahine could see a man rummaging through the back of his pickup truck and examining his toolbox. He left without taking anything, but Chachine suspects the man knew he was being watched.
“If it wasn’t for the camera,” Chahine said, “maybe he would have opened up the toolbox and cleared it out.”
He posted the video on social media and alerted police, who also posted it online. Within minutes, a suspect, 60-year-old Jeffrey Couch, was identified. Within hours, he was arrested in connection with a string of recent attempted car break-ins. Within a week, he pleaded no contest in court to two attempted larceny charges and was sentenced to 30 days in jail, according to the Detroit Free Press.
The Livonia Police Department heralded the arrest as “another example of the successful partnership” between the force, the community and Amazon’s household surveillance arm, Ring.
“It really is the Neighbourhood Watch of 2020,” Livonia Police Capt. Ron Taig said, echoing the phrase Ring uses in its advertising.
Capt. Ron Taig, with the Livonia Police Department in Michigan, shows the Neighbors portal made available to law enforcement agencies who sign agreements with Amazon’s Ring subsidiary. (Thomas Daigle/CBC)
U.S. police sign deals; Windsor wants in
Last year, Livonia PD signed a partnership with the Amazon subsidiary allowing citizens using Ring’s Neighbors app to report suspicious activity caught on surveillance. When a crime occurs, it also lets investigators request video captured within five miles (eight km) of the incident, without a warrant.
The company even provided free Ring cameras, which the police department gives away to citizens in monthly draws.
On his office computer, Taig displayed a map, accessible to Ring’s law enforcement partners, showing where users have signalled possible crimes and allowing police to respond. The notes from citizens typically come with a video taken from a Ring doorbell or another internet-connected camera.
Taig said the Ring deal has “accelerated how quickly we’re able to identify suspects,” and has directly led to arrests, including that of Couch.
Ring has signed similar deals with hundreds of law enforcement agencies across the U.S. At least one Canadian mayor wants in, too.
“I want to make sure that my police service can respond to crime efficiently, effectively, and with all the modern tools available to them,” said Mayor Drew Dilkens, of Windsor, Ont. He said he’s concerned opioid addictions have led to a string of crime in his city, which is just 33 kilometres from Livonia.
WATCH | Windsor, Ont., mayor defends proposed partnership with Ring
Drew Dilkens defends proposed deal with Amazon subsidiary 0:43
Dilkens said he’s been in touch with Ring and is eager for his city to adopt the Neighbors app once it’s rolled out north of the border. He was given no timeline, however.
A Ring spokesperson said in a statement to CBC News, “The Neighbors app is currently only available in the U.S.”
Privacy, data concerns
The police partnerships position a branch of a Silicon Valley giant as an intermediary between local authorities and citizens, letting its proprietary software act as a point of contact — leading to concerns about the way police data is handled once it’s in the hands of Ring.
Amazon already has access to a wealth of information on its users: tastes in movies and music through its streaming services, purchases from its online retail platform, not to mention the breadth of personal data that may be collected by the Alexa voice assistant.
Critics of Ring’s arrangements with police say local authorities shouldn’t be facilitating Amazon’s further acquisition of data.
“The whole system of frictionless video sharing with the police undermines most of the privacy rights that we’ve built over time,” said Bonnie Stewart, a University of Windsor education professor who studies technology’s implications for everyday life. She compared it to “building a surveillance infrastructure that looks back at us.”
The university recently hosted a public panel on the topic. Stewart said more than 70 people attended.
University of Windsor Prof. Bonnie Stewart compared Ring’s police partnerships to ‘building a surveillance infrastructure that looks back at us.’ (Sharon Wu/CBC)
Livonia Police said privacy concerns should be minimal, since doorbell cameras usually only record motion on a user’s own front porch, rather than in public areas. But Ring videos shared online point to a different reality: Many cameras, if positioned correctly, also record comings and goings on the street, or beyond the user’s property.
“Once we have opened the curtains, we can’t close them,” Stewart said. “People become accustomed to being surveilled at every level.”
In the U.S., a group of more than 30 civil rights organizations signed an open letter last fall demanding Ring’s partnerships with police be terminated, claiming the deals “threaten civil liberties, privacy and civil rights, and exist without oversight or accountability.”
Other criticisms have been far-ranging, from concerns over racial profiling to potential cybersecurity risks. Last Friday, CBS reported Ring would soon roll out tighter security settings, after it was shown to share personal information with other parties without users’ consent.
In Windsor, the mayor stressed he doesn’t want “a Big Brother state,” but pointed out police don’t have the ability to access live feeds through the Neighbors app, nor can they access video without a user’s permission.
“You have the ability to participate or not,” Dilkens said.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Schools in Mexico will have six months to implement a government-sponsored ban on junk food or else face heavy fines, officials said Monday.
The rules, published on Sept. 30, target products that have become staples for two or three generations of Mexican schoolkids: sugary fruit drinks sold in triangular cardboard cartons, chips, artificial pork rinds and soy-encased, salty peanuts with chile. School administrators who violate the order will face fines equivalent to between $545 and $5,450, which could double for a second offense, amounting to nearly a year’s wages for some of them.
Mexico’s children have the highest consumption of junk food in Latin America and many get 40% of their total caloric intake from it, according to the U.N. Children’s Fund which labeled child obesity there an emergency.
The new ban targets products that have become staples for two or three generations of Mexican schoolkids: sugary fruit drinks sold in triangular cardboard cartons, chips, artificial pork rinds and soy-encased, salty peanuts with chile.
President Claudia Sheinbaum said Monday schools would have to offer water fountains and alternative snacks, like bean tacos.
“It is much better to eat a bean taco than a bag of potato chips,” Sheinbaum said. “It is much better to drink hibiscus flower water than soda.”
However, the vast majority of Mexico’s 255,000 schools nationwide do not have free drinking water available to students. According to a report in 2020, the effort to install drinking fountains succeeded in only about 10,900 of the country’s schools, or about 4% of them. Many Schools are located in areas so poor or remote that they struggle to maintain acceptable bathrooms, internet connection or electricity.
Also the most common recipes for beans, refried beans, usually contain a significant dose of lard, which would violate rules against saturated fats.
Mexico instituted front-of-package warning labels for foods between 2010 and 2020, to advise consumers about high levels of salt, added sugar, excess calories and saturated fats. Some snack foods carry all four of the black, octagonal warning labels.
But under the new rules, schools will have to phase out any product containing even a single warning label from school snack stands. It wasn’t immediately clear how the government would enforce the ban on the sidewalks outside schools, where vendors usually set up tables of goods to sell to kids at recess.
Mexican authorities say the country has the worst childhood obesity problem in the world, with about one-third of children overweight or obese.
NEW YORK – Florida Panthers centre Sam Reinhart was named NHL first star of the week on Monday after leading all players with nine points over four games last week.
Reinhart had four goals, five assists and a plus-seven rating to help the Stanley Cup champions post a 3-0-1 record on the week and move into first place in the Atlantic Division.
New York Rangers left-winger Artemi Panarin took the second star and Minnesota Wild goaltenderFilip Gustavsson was the third star.
Panarin had eight points (4-4) over three games.
Gustavsson became the 15th goalie in NHL history to score a goal and had a 1.00 goals-against average and .962 save percentage over a pair of victories.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 21, 2024.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Deshaun Watson won’t finish the season as Cleveland’s starting quarterback for the second straight year.
He’s injured again, and the Browns have new problems.
Watson ruptured his right Achilles tendon in the first half of Sunday’s loss to Cincinnati, collapsing as he began to run and leading some Browns fans to cheer while the divisive QB laid on the ground writhing in pain.
The team feared Watson’s year was over and tests done Monday confirmed the rupture. The Browns said Watson will have surgery and miss the rest of the season but “a full recovery is expected.”
It’s the second significant injury in two seasons for Watson, who broke the glenoid (socket) bone in his throwing shoulder last year after just six starts.
The 29-year-old went down Sunday without being touched on a draw play late in the first half. His right leg buckled and Watson crumpled to the turf. TV replays showed his calf rippling, consistent with an Achilles injury.
He immediately put his hands on his helmet, clearly aware of the severity of an injury similar to the one Jets quarterback Aaron Rodgers sustained last year.
As he was being assisted by the team’s medical staff and backup Dorian Thompson-Robinson grabbed a ball to begin warming up, there was some derisive cheers and boos from the stands in Huntington Bank Field.
Cleveland fans have been split over Watson, who has been accused of being sexually inappropriate with women.
The reaction didn’t sit well with several Watson’s teammates, including star end Myles Garrett, the NFL’s reigning Defensive Player of the Year, who was appalled by the fans’ behavior.
“We should be ashamed of ourselves as Browns and as fans to boo anyone and their downfall. To be season-altering, career-altering injury,” Garrett said. “Man’s not perfect. He doesn’t need to be. None of us are expected to be perfect. Can’t judge him for what he does off the field or on the field because I can’t throw stones for my glass house.
“Ultimately everyone’s human and they’re disappointed just like we are, but we have to be better than that as people. There’s levels to this. At the end of the day, it’s just a game and you don’t boo anybody being injured and you don’t celebrate anyone’s downfall.”
Backup quarterback Jameis Winston also admonished the uncomfortable celebration.
“I am very upset with the reaction to a man that has had the world against him for the past four years, and he put his body and life on the line for this city every single day,” he said. “The way I was raised, I will never pull on a man when he’s down, but I will be the person to lift him up.
“I know you love this game. When I first got here, I knew these were some amazing fans, but Deshaun was treated badly and now he has to overcome another obstacle. So I’m going to support him, I’m going to lift him up and I’m going to be there for him.”
The injury is yet another twist in Watson’s tumultuous time with the Browns.
Cleveland traded three first-round draft picks and five overall to Houston in 2022 to get him, with owners Dee and Jimmy Haslam approving the team giving Watson a fully guaranteed, five-year $230 million contract.
With a solid roster, the Browns were desperate to find a QB who could help them compete against the top AFC teams.
The Browns had moved on from Baker Mayfield despite drafting him No. 1 overall in 2018 and making the playoffs two seasons later.
But Watson has not played up to expectations — fans have been pushing for him to be benched this season — and Cleveland’s move to get him has been labeled an abject failure with the team still on the hook to pay him $46 million in each of the next two seasons.
Watson’s arrival in Cleveland also came amid accusations by more than two dozen women of sexual assault and harassment during massage therapy sessions while he played for the Texans. Two grand juries declined to indict him and he has settled civil lawsuits in all but one of the cases.
Watson was suspended by the NFL for his first 11 games and fined $5 million for violating the league’s personal conduct policy before he took his first snap with the Browns. The long layoff — he sat out the 2021 season in a contract dispute — led to struggles once he got on the field, and Watson made just six starts last season before hurting his shoulder.
Cleveland signed veteran Joe Flacco, who went 4-1 as a starter and led the Browns to the playoffs.
Before Watson got hurt this year, he didn’t play much better. He was one of the league’s lowest-rated passers for a Cleveland team that hasn’t scored 20 points in a game and is back in search of a franchise QB.
