Nationally, doorbell cameras’ effectiveness in deterring crime is not yet apparent. Additionally, there have been several ethical dilemmas raised by minority groups and police watchdogs as the cameras become more popular.
Clayton Mosher, a professor of sociology at Washington State University Vancouver who focuses on criminology, said a key issue surrounding the devices is the involvement of big corporations such as Amazon in marketing them. The companies may be using “questionable ‘research’ to overstate their effectiveness and increase their profits,” he said.
“It is possible that the installation of doorbell cameras [or related technologies] may have a short-term impact on burglaries, but there are also displacement issues. People will still commit burglaries, and perhaps just go to different areas,” Mosher said.
Technology is ahead of the government’s attempts to regulate it, Mosher said. He is also concerned, he said, about who will have access to data from doorbell cameras and whether it will be linked to other data, especially law enforcement data, potentially violating people’s rights.
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