Leaked email shows Ring CEO using Charlie Kirk’s assassination to justify expansion of ‘Search Party’ feature: report

The Search Party feature is allegedly part of Ring’s plan to ‘complete what we started,’ although the significance of the declaration is unknown

Home security company Ring plans to expand its “Search Party” feature despite critics branding it “dystopian.”

Ring, which specialises in creating doorbells with live security camera feeds, showcased the Search Party tool in an ad that aired during Super Bowl LX.

The feature currently allows users to track a lost dog’s movements. It uses AI to analyse Ring doorbell camera feeds in the local area to locate missing canines.

However, a leaked email, sent by Ring CEO Jamie Siminoff and obtained by 404 Media, suggests that the company is planning to use the feature to “zero out crime in neighborhoods.”

In the same message, Siminoff referenced the hunt for right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk’s alleged assassin as proof of the value of Ring’s technology to law enforcement.

A leaked email from Ring claims that its Search Party tool, which currently tracks lost dogs, could be used for other surveillance purposes (Ring)

“This is by far the most innovation that we have launched in the history of Ring. And it is not only the quantity, but quality,” Siminoff reportedly wrote in a leaked email. “I believe that the foundation we created with Search Party, first for finding dogs, will end up becoming one of the most important pieces of tech and innovation to truly unlock the impact of our mission.

“You can now see a future where we are able to zero out crime in neighborhoods,” Siminoff continued. “So many things to do to get there but for the first time ever we have the chance to fully complete what we started.”

Exactly how the firm plans to “zero out crime” remains unknown, as does the significance of “complete what we started.”

The internet backlash against the Search Party technology, unveiled last fall, has been immense.

One social media user even compared the tool to Skynet, a fictional Artificial Intelligence machine from the Terminator franchise, hellbent on world domination.

“Ring Camera introducing Search Party. AI video surveillance of your neighborhood. Constantly, everyday, always watching,” the user wrote. “You can’t not hide or escape. Skynet.”

Another X user described the technology as being part of a “dystopian promise” of the future.

Despite the backlash, Siminoff seemed optimistic about the technology’s uses in the leaked email.

“It is exciting to be back to Day 1, we are going to have to work hard and leverage everything we can, especially AI,” he wrote.

A Ring advert appeared to show a neighborhood filled with doorbell camera, all using Search Party (Ring)

In another leaked email seen by 404 Media, Siminoff allegedly said that the killing of right-wing commentator Charlie Kirk showed “how important the community request tool will be as we fully roll it out.”

“It is so important to create the conduit for public service agencies to efficiently work with our neighbors,” he added.

The “community request tool” allows police to request footage from Ring doorbell cameras to support investigations.

Siminoff accompanied that second email with a link to an Instagram video, in which a law enforcement officer reports that footage from doorbell cameras was used to track Kirk’s alleged killer.

A third email, also obtained by 404 Media and allegedly sent by the CEO on September 4, saw Siminoff musing about how “public agencies” could use the tool.

Footage from a doorbell camera was recently used by the Pima County Sheriff’s Department in its search for Nancy Guthrie, the 84-year-old mother of Today show host Savannah Guthrie.

A video recorded by Nancy’s doorbell on the morning of February 1 showed an armed, masked man outside of her door, shortly before she was believed to have vanished.

The Search Party tool is currently an optional technology, which is switched on upon activating your Ring doorbell but can be turned off.

The feature is just one of several ways Ring uses artificial intelligence, with the company already launching its “Familiar Faces” tool.

Ring doorbells are an immensely popular home security system (Alistair Charlton/The Independent)

Familiar Faces uses A.I. to identify specific family members and friends in the Ring camera's view, so users can see if someone they recognize is at their door.

Another feature, known as “Fire Watch,” alerts users if it detects a fire inside or surrounding the property.

A Ring spokesperson told The Independent that Siminoff’s leaked emails were “intended to speak broadly to the long-term potential of customer-controlled features and technologies working together to support safer communities.”

“No single feature is designed to ‘zero out crime,’ and tools like Search Party for Dogs are purpose-built for specific use cases — like helping reunite lost pets — with privacy and user choice at the center,” the spokesperson continued. “Jamie writes these emails knowing they may be shared externally, this isn’t the first (or last) time his notes have been shared.”

The spokesperson also responded to the backlash to the Search Party function. They said the company was “focused on giving camera owners meaningful context about critical events in their neighborhoods.”

A Ring spokesperson says that their product does not ‘track people’ (Alistair Charlton/The Independent)

“For example, Search Party helps camera owners identify potential lost dogs using detection technology built specifically for that purpose; it does not process human biometrics or track people,” the spokesperson said. “Fire Watch alerts owners to nearby fire activity.

“Community Requests notify neighbors when local public safety agencies ask the community for assistance,” the spokesperson continued. “Across these features, sharing has always been the camera owner’s choice.

“Ring provides relevant context about when sharing may be helpful—but the decision remains firmly in the customer’s hands, not ours,” the spokesperson concluded.