Ring has canceled its partnership with Flock Safety, after receiving backlash for running a Super Bowl ad touting its Search Party feature. If you remember, Ring revealed in October 2025 that it enter into a partnership with the surveillance company, which will make it possible for law enforcement to ask smart doorbell owners for videos captured on their devices. In his advertisementthe company said the “planned Flock Safety integration will take more time and resources than expected.” The decision to cancel the partnership was mutual, Ring added, and the Flock Safety merger was never launched. Apparently, no Ring customer footage was sent to Flock.

Under the partnership, law enforcement agencies using Flock’s Nova or FlockOS platform will be able to use Ring’s Community Requests to request doorbell video from users. They would have been asked to specify the location and timeframe of the incident, as well as provide a unique investigation code and details about what was being investigated. Their requests are then forwarded to relevant users, who can then choose to share the footage from their doorbell. Ring said the entire process can be anonymous and optional.

The ring is known to have shared security cam video in law enforcement without a court order or device owner’s consent at least 11 times in the past. In 2024, however, it seems there will be walked back its police-friendly stance and said it would stop sharing police videos without a warrant. This alliance with Flock would have marked a return to collaboration with the police after the company distanced itself from law enforcement.

While Ring’s official reason was that the Flock partnership required more resources than expected, it’s worth noting that the company recently got flak for its Super Bowl Search Party ad. Ring touts it as a way to find lost dogs by using AI in its cameras to detect pets running across their field of vision and then combining feeds to identify missing pets. While Search Party is not new and was announced last year, the ad has sparked concerns about surveillance and how the technology can be misused, leading users to DISABLED the part for their cameras at all.