On Aug. 7, The Monitoring Association (TMA) issued a statement condemning Ring and its partnerships with law enforcement, which SDM shared here. 

In the statement, TMA President Ivan Spector was quoted saying, “We are troubled by recent reports of agreements that are said to drive product-specific promotion, without alerting consumers about these marketing relationships. This lack of transparency goes against our standards as an industry, diminishes public trust and takes advantage of these public servants. Trust is at the heart of our business, and only by establishing and abiding by clear best practices to be transparent while balancing the various public interests can we effectively navigate these waters.”

Yesterday, on Aug. 21, TMA issued a new statement, which is included in full below:

“Over the course of the past week, TMA has followed up on some of the recent reporting regarding Ring and its law enforcement partnerships. Based on our findings, we believe that the reports contain numerous inaccuracies and we regret that our earlier statement was premature and wish to retract it. It has become apparent that Ring has not only been partnering with police departments in a transparent manner but has also been providing hardware specifically to low-income neighborhoods in an effort to reduce crime in neighborhoods. 

“We as an industry encourage the use of technology in order to increase public safety and as technology evolves and becomes more prevalent, so does the opportunity for security companies to partner with communities and public safety groups to achieve our shared goals. We at TMA will continue to ensure a balance between law enforcement, the public and the electronic security industry.”