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Crime Privacy

Amazon Ring Alert Leads To Capture of 'Extremely Dangerous' Escaped Convict (go.com) 85

Posted by EditorDavid from the notifications dept.
ABC News describes how Amazon's surveillance doorbell cameras today led to the capture of an "extremely dangerous" inmate: Homicide suspect Curtis Watson, 44, escaped from work detail on a tractor at the West Tennessee State Penitentiary in Henning, Tennessee, about 50 miles northeast of Memphis, on Wednesday. The tractor was later found about a mile away from the prison. Around 3:30 a.m. Sunday morning, police received a tip from Henning residents Harvey and Anne Taylor that they believed they had video surveillance of Watson outside their home, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch told reporters in a news conference.

The couple was woken up by an alarm from their Ring video doorbell system that alerted them someone was in their backyard, Harvey Taylor said. When they pulled up the screen, they saw a man looking in the refrigerator in their carport, but couldn't see his face. Once Watson closed the refrigerator door, Ann Taylor recognized Watson from his beard, and the couple called 911...

Within 30 minutes of receiving the Taylors' call, law enforcement officers from multiple agencies descended on the area, "which then kept it contained and controlled from that point forward," Rausch said.
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Amazon Ring Alert Leads To Capture of 'Extremely Dangerous' Escaped Convict More

Amazon Ring Alert Leads To Capture of 'Extremely Dangerous' Escaped Convict

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  • Since, you know, the whole debacle about them writing scripts about for the police. And, the general creepiness of not having to have a warrant to grab video from the devices themselves.

    • Amazon's "people who bought this also bought," will include a refrigerator.

  • they saw a man looking in the refrigerator in their carport

    I have a fridge. And I have a carport. But who the hell has a fridge in their carport? Is this some weird local cultural thing?

    • Could have been a freezer, if not there are some people who must store food longer than others due due living in a remote location or being poor. They can't drive to a store 2-3 times a week to buy fresh food. Maybe they hunt for game.
      • I know this doesn't matter, but according to various articles, it was a refrigerator. The fugitive was seen removing drinks from the thing.

        https://www.usatoday.com/story... [usatoday.com]

        • I know this doesn't matter, but according to various articles, it was a refrigerator. The fugitive was seen removing drinks from the thing. https://www.usatoday.com/story... [usatoday.com]

          Well,sure... murder, rape and not to mention, prison escape is thirsty bidness. I wonder what you're hoping for as a fleeing felon when youn open the "extra" fridge? Dasani, or Dos Equis?

          • I know this doesn't matter, but according to various articles, it was a refrigerator. The fugitive was seen removing drinks from the thing. https://www.usatoday.com/story... [usatoday.com]

            Well,sure... murder, rape and not to mention, prison escape is thirsty bidness. I wonder what you're hoping for as a fleeing felon when youn open the "extra" fridge? Dasani, or Dos Equis?

            Must be, especially when you are so dangerous you are left unsupervised with a fucking tractor of all things!

    • It's common to have additional freezers for game which is processed outdoors.
      Also remember an indoor freezer raises room temperature.

    • Really? You never wanted a beer (or other cold beverage) during / after working outside, and didn't feel like taking off your dirty shoes first?
    • This was fairly common where I grew up in Chicago. I was raised by my Depression Era grandparents and in the fridge was a lot of meat that was on sale at the time and previously prepared frozen meals. We also had a big family so the extra fridge made things easier at the holidays when two dozen people would come over.

    • they saw a man looking in the refrigerator in their carport

      I have a fridge. And I have a carport. But who the hell has a fridge in their carport? Is this some weird local cultural thing?

      What the actual fuck is a carport? Was Moe not joking when he garage is too posh for him and he calls it a car hole. Are you like one step up from that?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by makomk ( 752139 )

        A carport is like a garage, except minus the door and often most of the walls. Basically it's just a roofed outdoor area that a car can be parked in.

      • The house I grew up in had a large 2 car carport in the back. While not as fancy or protective as a garage, one that is connected to the large back patio as ours was is pretty handy, you can get to and from your car without getting wet in rain or snow, plus it helps keep snow off your car, unless you have a sideways blizzard or a small carport.
        Also provides shade if you're working on your car.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Falos ( 2905315 )

        Apparently it's the word for people too posh to say "car tent".

    • Nope you find them all over United states and often times filled with beer just not in the large cities.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by ebvwfbw ( 864834 )

      Southern thing. So is having a pick-em-up truck. Coon hound. Car on blocks in the front yard. Used to be you'd see a clothes washer out front. I don't think I've seen that in over 20 years down that way. Never know though. Good folks. They'll haul your ass out of a ditch if you get stuck.

  • The question I want answered is why someone simply suspected of something (NOT convicted) is out on labor duty for a crime they possibly didn't commit? This is weird on all levels.

    • He raped and killed a woman who worked at the prison during the escape. I don't know what he was in for - something less than homicide.

      • He was in jail on a aggravated kidnapping conviction, and also has child abuse convictions on his record. As toonces33 mentioned, he allegedly murdered one of the prison works during/after the escape.
  • I realize that Benjamin Franklin's quote is mis-applied from it's original meaning but it fits so well. Real meaning of Franklin's quote [npr.org]

    It's great that a criminal was caught and justice will be served, but at what cost? Government officials are addicted to surveillance and Silicon Valley is addicted to the tax payer money flowing from them. The fat lady has sung and there will be no going back.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by nadass ( 3963991 )
      The homeowners called the cops... so what are you rambling on about?!

      • the police were just 30 minutes away.

        This has a "we were too overworked to monitor the most notorious, high-profile jail inmate in recent history, who could have 'brought down' a former US President, an heir to the British throne and the MIT Computer Science department" quality to it.

        This couple call 9-1-1 on a prison escapee who murdered a prison worker, the subject of a desperate manhunt, and it takes 30 minutes for the cops to show up?

        • the police were just 30 minutes away.

          This has a "we were too overworked to monitor the most notorious, high-profile jail inmate in recent history, who could have 'brought down' a former US President, an heir to the British throne and the MIT Computer Science department" quality to it.

          This couple call 9-1-1 on a prison escapee who murdered a prison worker, the subject of a desperate manhunt, and it takes 30 minutes for the cops to show up?

          Hey. Project blame much? It's not like they were on the Planning Commission who approved the Dunkin's on the other side of town.

  • ... develop a Ring-enabled mock refrigerator called the, "ReRingerator®" to appeal to customers near correctional facilities.

    Cons gotta eat, right? The local Ring-enabled police departments will be stopping vehicles and handing out Amazon-scripted promotional materials.

  • Let me get this straight (Score:4, Insightful)

    by 93 Escort Wagon ( 326346 ) on Sunday August 11, 2019 @07:32PM (#59077508)

    Are they basically saying that if they didn't have video - or with video, didn't know who it was - they wouldn't have called the police?

    I fail to see what specifically Ring accomplished here over any other old-fashioned security system - or even a barking dog.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by trolman ( 648780 ) *

      I fail to see what specifically Ring accomplished here over any other old-fashioned security system - or even a barking dog.

      They managed to have you type their name here on /.

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by AHuxley ( 892839 )
      Re "or with video"
      Now with modern tech people can see more things more often.
      Communities all over the USA can see things going on around them more often thanks to networks.

    • Re:Let me get this straight (Score:4)

      by geek ( 5680 ) on Monday August 12, 2019 @09:24AM (#59078692)

      They are saying that without the Ring device they would not have been woken at 3am that someone was intruding on the property. And without the camera they would not have known who it was and made the sensible decision to call the police instead of grabbing their own shotgun and confronting him. This is a straight up win for Ring. Other systems could have done this, sure, but Ring is cheap as hell and did the job.

    • its called an advertisement.

    • The summary makes it sound like they called 911 because they recognized him as an escaped convict, but in reality they would call the police on any stranger breaking into their fridge.

      Ring did nothing that couldn't have been done with any other security camera, help identify the person. The owners did the same thing they would have done under any other circumstances regardless of brand name or perpetrator. They caught someone breaking into their stuff, they called the police.

  • Mathematics, statistics, and downright fibs (Score:5, Insightful)

    by rmdingler ( 1955220 ) on Sunday August 11, 2019 @07:34PM (#59077518) Journal

    The statistical anomaly is being used, quite successfully, to train the populace to respect pervasive curtailments to their freedoms for their own safety.

    Here we have a one-off instance where the public was spared from the malevolence of a dangerous criminal, even though there's no evidence he was anything but thirsty, when it seems likely by historical precedent these Ring doorbells (baby cameras, computer speakers,etc) will be commandeered at a much higher rate of incidence simply to spy on you.

    You can trade your freedom for safety. If the wolves are at the door, this seems like a fair trade off. If the the wolves are dressed like gov't benefactors, question the motive, and reserve the right to opt out.

    • Re:Mathematics, statistics, and downright fibs (Score:5, Insightful)

      by phantomfive ( 622387 ) on Sunday August 11, 2019 @09:50PM (#59077804) Journal
      The problem here is that people like their Ring doorbells. They like them enough to pay actual money for them (Facebook would die if it started charging for its whatever. No one likes Facebook). People want that surveillance functionality, and they like the spying.

      Because those people know what they want, the rest of us can't act like foaming-mouth lunatics. We have to define exactly what we don't want the Ring to do, and balance it with what the Ring owners want.

      If we act with hysteria and outrage without a plan, we will be brushed aside by history as the surveillance state is established.

      • The problem here is that people like their Ring doorbells. They like them enough to pay actual money for them (Facebook would die if it started charging for its whatever. No one likes Facebook). People want that surveillance functionality, and they like the spying. Because those people know what they want, the rest of us can't act like foaming-mouth lunatics. We have to define exactly what we don't want the Ring to do, and balance it with what the Ring owners want. If we act with hysteria and outrage without a plan, we will be brushed aside by history as the surveillance state is established.

        I am encouraged by your optimism, yet it seems unlikely what I want, the inability of States and/or interested parties to commandeer personal video, is a reasonable future outcome.

        We created this wonderful internet to free ourselves from the bonds of State oppressors, and it's become the tool of our oppression.

        • what I want, the inability of States and/or interested parties to commandeer personal video,

          OK, that's a good start, now figure out a way to balance it with the wants of Ring owners.

          • Require LEAs to get subpoenas for security footage from any type of private residential surveillance system.

          • >"OK, that's a good start, now figure out a way to balance it with the wants of Ring owners."

            That is actually pretty easy. Almost the exact same stuff, but without a corporate-controlled, external "cloud" element to it. No access to my data. The problem? No company will make/promite them because the new model *is* to have everything controlled centrally for two reasons- endless income from it being a "service" and, of course, access to all our data. Until "the masses" understand and appreciate their

            • The problem? No company will make/promite them because the new model *is* to have everything controlled centrally for two reasons- endless income from it being a "service" and, of course, access to all our data.

              So, design your own, put it up for sale. If it's popular enough to pay whatever you need to charge, it'll sell.

          • Donâ(TM)t send the data to the cloud.

            Thereâ(TM)s very little reason for any of these devices to communicate with external servers, and LOTS of reasons for them not do do so.

            I expect waves of hacking and abuse by companies will eventually convince people that keeping their data local is better, but it will probably take a while.

          • What's the name 'Ring' based on? Tolkien?

        • "We created this wonderful internet to free ourselves from the bonds of State oppressors, and it's become the tool of our oppression."

          It's not new:

          "little by little they were drawn to touches such as colonnades, baths, and elegant talks. Because they didn't know better, they called it 'civilization,' when it was part of their slavery"

          - Tacitus, from _Agricola_

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by Kjella ( 173770 )

      You can trade your freedom for safety. If the wolves are at the door, this seems like a fair trade off. If the the wolves are dressed like gov't benefactors, question the motive, and reserve the right to opt out.

      Unfortunately you can't opt out of what other people choose to do. Sure, I can choose not to set up a Ring doorbell myself. So what? There's enough people that don't care and won't care that it doesn't matter. Not all things are in any meaningful way my individual choice, it's something we decide either formally through laws and regulations, taxes and public spending or informally by voting with our wallet and social norms.

      When I was younger I thought being the special snowflake made a difference, the defia

      • You can trade your freedom for safety. If the wolves are at the door, this seems like a fair trade off. If the the wolves are dressed like gov't benefactors, question the motive, and reserve the right to opt out.

        Unfortunately you can't opt out of what other people choose to do. Sure, I can choose not to set up a Ring doorbell myself. So what? There's enough people that don't care and won't care that it doesn't matter. Not all things are in any meaningful way my individual choice, it's something we decide either formally through laws and regulations, taxes and public spending or informally by voting with our wallet and social norms.

        When I was younger I thought being the special snowflake made a difference, the defiant 1% that didn't agree with everyone else. A few times that made a difference, but honestly... a lot of the time it made no difference at all. The world changed around me as if I wasn't there, flowing around me like a man trying to hold back a river. So now I'm more like if all my friends jumped off a bridge and I'm tied to the same bungee rope I might as well jump before I'm dragged kicking and screaming.

        If we all believe that, there is no hope. Change begins, and ends, with individual sacrifice... don't allow the statistical futility of your benefit to the commons to dissuade your hope that it might make a difference. We can ill afford to lose you.

    • Re: Mathematics, statistics, and downright fibs (Score:4, Insightful)

      by argStyopa ( 232550 ) on Monday August 12, 2019 @08:45AM (#59078604) Journal

      1) the man was serving 15 years (!) on an aggravated kidnapping rap. That's murder-levels of time, btw.

      2) he's likely murdered the corrections woman he was working with

      I think we can fairly safely say he was fucking "dangerous"?

      Further, I'm getting pretty tired of people misquoting the "trading liberty for security" thing. It's ESSENTIAL liberty, because anyone with a brain understands that society is founded on constant trading of small liberties for security. We don't drive wherever we want, stay between the lines, and obey the speed limit so the roads are generally safer. We accept laws constrain our actions, recognizing that those laws also generally protect us.

      In turn, some lonely basement dwellers without family, without ties, without property, cry about how they've lost some ephemeral theorized "freedom" (hand waving when asked to explain precisely how).

      Thanks, but the bulk of society doesn't care whether there's a camera watching them because there's nothing to see. "But what about....?" - I'll worry about that when it happens. Until then I'll be happy knowing that my family is one tiny bit safer, thanks.

    • Here we have a one-off instance where the public was spared from the malevolence of a dangerous criminal, even though there's no evidence he was anything but thirsty,

      News Flash: He wasn't in prison for singing too loud in church.

      Watson was serving a 15-year prison sentence for an aggravated kidnapping conviction and he was previously convicted of aggravated child abuse. He's currently accused of raping and murdering Debra Johnson, a prison administrator. Johnson was found dead in her home on the prison grounds. Investigators said she was sexually assaulted and strangled to death.

      So yeah, I'd call him a dangerous criminal.

    • even though there's no evidence he was anything but thirsty

      This is a false dichotomy unless your very next suggestion is that this person is reformed and shouldn't be in jail in the first place.

  • ...get to be on a work detail? How does a tractor race away from said work detail and fail to be noticed after going 10 yards? How does a doorbell camera show anything in a homeowner's backyard? Why does a couple have a refrigerator available to the entire world?
    • Well, for the first bit, he has been in prison since 2012 after being convicted of kidnapping someone; he is suspected of murdering a prison official after he made his escape.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

      How does a doorbell camera show anything in a homeowner's backyard?

      Houses are allowed to have more than 1 door, and homeowners aren't limited to 1 Ring purchase?

      Why does a couple have a refrigerator available to the entire world?

      Growing up we had a fridge in our garage. Used it mostly to hold some drinks and frozen food in the freezer. That thing was older than I was, and it was not pretty when it finally died in the middle of summer and a bunch of frozen deer meat thawed....

      So why wouldn't people have a fridge in the car port? You're out in the country, what are the odds someone's going to walk up and take something? And even if they

  • Probably just semantics, but did it alert them that someone was in their backyard, or just in the vicinity of their door?

    In my neck of the woods my doorbell and backyard are on opposite sides of the house. Not sure how one can see the other.

  • The number of false alarms resulting from Ring equipped locations.

    Also, the racial data on false alarms will not be collected. Google and the police want 100% percent deniability about the racial profiling that underlies the marketing strategy and police record keeping. All the released information will reinforce the myth that policing is fair and "undesirable" kinds of people make most of the trouble. That is already the case with so called "predictive" policing software and Ring will just bring this to

    • Re:A stastic that will never be reported (Score:4, Insightful)

      by thesupraman ( 179040 ) on Monday August 12, 2019 @02:14AM (#59078070)

      WTF are you blathering about?

      What does race have to do with privacy concerns of Ring? You think its cameras only pick up dark skin perhaps?

      As to YOUR attempt to denounce a 'myth' that undesirable people make most of the trouble.. perhaps you should consider your use of words there, I'm pretty sure people who cause trouble would, almost by definition, be undesirable.
      And yes, I know you were trying to play semantic games to imply things.. but dont be so childish. If you want to say 'Police unfairly target black people' than just say that, stop trying to hide behind words.

      Ring doesnt actually give one shit about race, it is a surveillance platform, EVERYONE get surveilled. THATS what you should be caring about. Not trying to make this some kind of Racial BS.

      • Re: (Score:2, Flamebait)

        by Nidi62 ( 1525137 )

        WTF are you blathering about?

        What does race have to do with privacy concerns of Ring? You think its cameras only pick up dark skin perhaps?

        As to YOUR attempt to denounce a 'myth' that undesirable people make most of the trouble.. perhaps you should consider your use of words there, I'm pretty sure people who cause trouble would, almost by definition, be undesirable.

        He's probably referring to the rising phenomena of Ring/security systems combined with apps/websites like Nextdoor. People will post video of "suspicious" people in their neighborhood with varying degrees of "suspiciousness" often fed by bias and profiling, whether consciously or not. So you might have more people posting videos or commenting worried about the black high school kid cutting through the neighborhood on his way home from school than the white meth addict cruising around looking for Amazon pa

  • He should've walked. would escape faster.

    Seriously. Visualize "escaping on a tractor".
  • See, that's why you take the time to shave right before you escape from prison. I mean, that's escaping 101 really.

  • Before you go to prison...the Ring sees you.

  • ...the fact that a suspected murderer was on outside work detail?!?! I have a Ring that I got on Prime day and once you adjust the zones it works well. We're already under surveillance 24 / 7 anyways...

  • This is a TERRIBLE response time! Fire department probably would have been there in 4 - 10 minutes, had it been a fire. Do you realize how much death and carnage he could have caused in 30 minutes?

  • Lets be honest here, work details are abusive money making methods forced on prisoners, with insufficient security because it is supposed to make money, not cost it.

    Nobody really escapes from a work detail, they merely run away. There is no using a tool to dig your way out, no costumes, no soap carved to look like a gun.

    Honestly, it's most often walks away, not even run away. Because the guards do crap.

    Don't glorify the prisoner to make the guards look better.
       

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