Mike Bodnar investigates the rise of doorbell cameras
Ding-dong! It’s a sound that makes us drop everything and head to the front door to see who it is. We don’t know of course until we open it, or at least that’s the way it used to be. Today we can see who’s there from the safety and comfort of our home – or even overseas if we’re lucky enough to be on hol-iday – thanks to doorbell video cameras. Their rise in popularity in the past decade has been aided by developments in Internet and wireless technology, plus the fact that there is plenty of competition in the market-place and prices have been dropping. But just how useful are video doorbells? According to some local Sunbury residents, it depends what type you have, how good the video is that you capture, and whether the police can follow up if a crime has been com-mitted. At the very least you can see what happens on your property and hopefully take action. For example local resident Diane* says, ‘Most recently, I’ve found when my driveway is empty people are using it as a turning point. In some cases they have come close to hitting my house, or have mounted my neighbour’s lawn. So because of that, I have placed ob-jects on my driveway to prevent it.’ Being able to see what’s going on while you’re out is obviously a positive. Larissa*, also local, caught a thief stealing topiary plants from her front doorstep one night. Un-fortunately the video, in black and white, was slightly blurry. She posted it on Facebook and says, ‘There was a lot of shares, however this mysterious man seems to have no name and has vanished off the face of the earth.’ She also contacted the police but at time of writ-ing was still waiting for a response. Local resident Marina* had some luck the very day she installed her video doorbell, which alerted her to unusual activity on her property. She says, ‘[It was] a young lad, prowling round the gardens. As soon as he saw us he pretended to be calling a cat and ran away!’ The technology matters Some Sunbury residents have reported that how useful their video doorbell is depends on how it operates. Some systems alert you on an app when motion is detected, and you can access your camera feed remotely. Others record activity to a memory card, but can be activated by the slightest movement and can take a few minutes to reset. There are many other variations.
Joan’s* doorbell camera was activated by any motion detected, including passing buses and cars, and took a while to reset after recording. She says it got so frustrating she stopped us-ing it, and then missed catching whoever ran over her partner’s motorcycle parked outside. She is now upgrading to a better model, and vows to keep it on at all times. Captured – on camera and afterwards
In 2019, Amazon Ring Video Doorbells were offered to various police forces in England to either hand out free or to sell at a discount. A Ring spokesperson said that its technology ‘had led to amazing results,’ while a spokes-person from Suffolk police added, ‘This is massively powerful for us. We have had at least four prolific criminals captured as a con-sequence of doorbells.’
(Names changed to protect privacy)