Amazon’s home security firm Ring is hiring journalists to report on crime
Seattle WA May 1 2019
Amazon is building out a new media news team to write crime alerts for its neighborhood watch app, Neighbors. The app was set up by security firm Ring, which it acquired in 2018 for $1 billion.
Ring and Neighbors’ mission is to reduce crime in local communities.
These alerts draw greater attention to crime in neighborhoods and could encourage customers to invest more in-home security. It would also help prevent theft of Amazon packages.
Amazon is getting into crime.
The retail giant is hiring a managing editor to oversee a team of editors that write crime alerts for its neighborhood watch app, Neighbors. The app was set up by security firm Ring, which Amazon acquired for $1 billion in 2018.
In the job posting, first reported by Neiman Lab, Amazon wrote: “The Managing Editor, News will work on an exciting new opportunity within Ring to manage a team of news editors who deliver breaking crime news alerts to our neighbors.”
It continued: “The candidate should be eager to join a dynamic, new media news team that is rapidly evolving and growing week by week.” The role requires more than five years of experience in breaking news and crime reporting.
A spokesperson for Ring told Business Insider that the news team sends out crime and safety information to the app users. This information is pulled from reporting agencies, certified social media accounts, public safety systems, and other sources, the spokesperson said.
Ring is a home security company that sells smart video doorbells and security cameras that cost between $89 and $449, and which enable customers to monitor their homes directly from their smartphone or computer.
Its mission, outlined on its website, is to reduce crime in local communities. It relies on its customers to spread the word via Neighbors. Here they can share clips shot by their Ring video doorbells and security cameras to alert neighbors of thieves. The technology was recently used to help catch an Uber driver suspected of burglarizing a home in California.
This news reporting team at Ring is beneficial to Amazon as it’s likely to draw greater attention to crime in neighborhoods and therefore, encourage people to invest in home security.
This could provide a handy boost for Ring sales and with more surveillance in homes, there is likely to be less package theft from porches, which is an expensive problem for any e-commerce retailer, including Amazon.
A recent survey by comparison-shopping service insuranceQuotes.com estimated that around 26 million Americans had a package stolen from their home during the most recent holiday season. And it’s usually the e-commerce companies that pay the price for this as they will generally ship out a replacement.
