Cheap video systems open the door to home surveillance

If you peruse social media sites like Nextdoor, you'll find a good number of photos and videos of people caught stealing stuff or seemingly casing a house, garage or vehicle for a break-in. People love sharing and looking at that stuff.

And it's never been easier for people to watch over their homes when they're away, thanks to increasingly sophisticated and inexpensive video cameras. Police say the cameras often give them valuable leads in trying to catch crooks.

L.T. Nguyen deployed some Ring video doorbells at her home in St. Paul's Highland Park neighborhood, hoping to deter package theft. Whenever a doorbell rings or there's motion on her porch or in her yard, she gets a heads-up.

"It comes up as an alert on my phone and I can see who you are," she said.

But Nguyen was out of the country, beyond the reach of alerts, when a man started showing up and walking around her property. He did that several times before making off with some patio chairs last May.

Nguyen saw the crime when she played back video recordings.

"If we didn't have the camera, we wouldn't have known really what happened," she said. "We would have come out one morning and the two chairs would be missing. It was disconcerting to review all our information and see he actually came by multiple times and cased our house."

Nguyen provided photos and videos to the police and posted images online, too. So far, no one has identified the man.

Mark Doerr of St. Paul's Merriam Park neighborhood put a security camera on his garage last fall. It captured nothing of interest until late one night this week. A bicyclist towing a bike trailer absconded with a few bags of mulch that Doerr had left along his backyard fence.

It wasn't a big loss. But Doerr has seen videos online that make him think the guy may be ripping off people over in Minneapolis.

"People have posted a few pictures in the Longfellow neighborhood, a guy doing very much a similar sort of thing, except he rides the bike up with the Burley and picks up Amazon packages off the front porches," he said. "I'm sure he got better things off those front porches than he got out of my backyard."

St. Paul Police Department spokesperson Mike Ernster said homeowners' security cameras have made neighborhood crime watches much more effective. "It's another way for neighbors to look out for neighbors," he said.

Sometimes, the cops may recognize a crook. Or neighbors may see that the thief lives among them. In Apple Valley, a teen turned himself in after realizing that an incriminating photo of him ripping off an Amazon delivery was circulating on social media.

Apple Valley police Capt. Nick Francis said more homeowners are supplying cellphone or security camera video when they report crimes. And that's helping solve more cases.

"We have more sets of eyes and ears out in our community," he said. "Where someone used to describe the person, now we have video or photographs."

Minneapolis police say they've used tape from home security cameras to catch package thieves and even help with violent crime investigations.

"Video systems are more prevalent than they were five years ago," said Scott Seroka, a department spokesperson. "Obviously when you increase the number of systems out there, you increase how helpful they are to investigators."

A good high-definition home surveillance camera or video doorbell can cost $100 or less. Chase Miskowicz of Best Buy advises customers about cameras and other smart home products. He said many people aren't afraid to try to set up cameras themselves. "I see everybody that comes in kind of looking for that do-it-yourself kind of camera," he said. "Plug and play."

With the spread of high-speed home and cellular networks, homeowners can watch streaming surveillance videos just about anywhere. Or they can review archived video stored on cameras, home networks or on the web.

With basic video security systems, people tend to monitor cameras themselves, although they may pay to have video archived online for a small fee. But as systems get more complex, homeowners are more likely to pay for installation and round-the-clock monitoring.

Prices for monitoring services have been falling, as more companies get into the home security business. For instance, Ring, which makes video doorbells and other security cameras and devices, offers monitoring for $10 a month.

"Our system will alert the dispatchers, which will call your emergency contact list. And if no one answers, they will dispatch the police," said Yassi Shahmiri, director of communications for Ring.

Ring won't say how many doorbell cameras it has sold but says the count is in the millions. The company provides a smartphone app that lets customers share videos and photos. People who don't own Ring products can also see the images.

"The app allows you to connect with your neighbors within a 5-mile radius and stay up-to-date on local crime and safety information," Shahmiri said. "If your neighbor two blocks down experienced a package theft or someone attempting to break into their home, they might have caught it on camera."

What if someone steals a Ring doorbell camera or bashes it with, say, a baseball bat? Shahmiri said Ring will replace the camera — and the perpetrator's actions will be recorded.

Generally, homeowners won't run into any legal problems with security cameras, as long they don't intrude on the privacy of neighbors. "Filming on your own property is not a problem," said William McGeveran, a law professor at the University of Minnesota.

But people should watch what they say in any comments about photos and videos they post. "When you distribute it and say things about what you're seeing, you better be sure that you're saying correct things," he warned.

McGeveran said that if people accuse someone of theft and they're wrong, they could commit a crime themselves: slander.

Correction (July 18, 2018): In an earlier version of this story, photo captions misidentified the location of the Merriam Park neighborhood. The captions have been updated.