LA Residents Foil ICE Raids Using Amazon Ring's Neighborhood Watch App
Neighbors, an app originally designed for Ring doorbell users, is typically used by people looking for lost pets or missing packages. But last week, horrified by ICE raids in and around Los Angeles, residents started using the Amazon app to alert their communities to immigration agents carrying out searches and arrests. 'It was very grassroots and it's become a tool being used by people just trying to help keep neighbors safe,' said Nic, a Southern California resident whose full name isn't being published to protect her safety.
While social media sites and Nextdoor have been used to highlight ICE activity across the U.S. in recent days, Neighbors has been especially popular, with dozens of posts reviewed by Forbes over the last week. It allows anyone to post on safety issues in their locale and users can choose to include footage from their Ring doorbell cameras where relevant. As one community activist wrote on Facebook, 'Ring Camera is saving so many families' lives and proving citizens are being harassed and beat up.'
People turned to Ring in particular around the L.A. protests, which began on June 7 in response to ICE mass arresting immigrants and became a political flashpoint as President Trump called in the National Guard and sent in Marines to clamp down on demonstrators. While Trump has slightly tempered the aggression of his immigration policies in recent days, saying he would pause 'work site enforcement investigations/operations on agriculture . . . restaurants and operating hotels,' per the New York Times, big cities like L.A. would continue to be the focus of ICE's efforts.
'Even as an American born citizen whose family goes back generations on both sides, I'm nervous about the possibility of coming across ICE.'
Neighbors users remained vigilant in posts reviewed by Forbes over the last week, which featured photos and videos of ICE agents, including their locations and, in numerous cases, their vehicle type. Some posts had information on ICE agents near stores like Dollar Tree, McDonald's, Starbucks and Target. Two alerted communities to ICE operation near elementary schools. Others claimed that construction workers were being apprehended at sites across L.A., including a Home Depot, in a June 10 post that was subsequently deleted (the L.A. protests began after immigration agents were spotted near a Home Depot in Paramount, though there was no actual raid at the store). Many of these alerts feature the ice cube emoji as shorthand for immigration officials.
'Just trying to keep everyone safe,' wrote one user, who was warning about ICE agents potentially heading to L.A.'s MacArthur Park, after receiving a notice from her kid's school. 'Be safe everyone,' said another, alerting Neighbors users to ICE officers at a recreation center.
Forbes spoke to three people who used the Amazon-owned app over the last week around the L.A. protests. 'My neighborhood is very diverse, I don't know everyone but many of us are people of color and I assume, some are immigrants, possibly undocumented,' Nic said. 'Even as an American born citizen whose family goes back generations on both sides, I'm nervous about the possibility of coming across ICE.'
She said it's been helpful to know what parts of Los Angeles to avoid. 'I feel like in a time when things are so unfamiliar and scary, small peaks of hope are helpful,' she told Forbes, saying that she'd seen users posting reminders of people's rights and recommendations not to open doors to ICE agents who didn't have warrants.
'I live in a Hispanic neighborhood and am trying to raise awareness to keep families safe,' Jennifer, a Neighbors user from Orange County, told Forbes. 'I feel strongly about the constitution, due process and that America is a country full of migrants.'
She said Nextdoor had also been helpful for spreading similar information. The LA Times last week reported on citizens using that app to alert others to ICE raids, and Forbes reviewed many posts on Nextdoor warning about immigration operations over recent days.
Not every Neighbors post has been in support of the immigrant community, with numerous examples of users cheering the ICE raids. 'I live in a pretty red part of Southern California, so of course under the warning posts there are the gross comments where people were saying, 'Hooray! Go get the illegals,'' said Nic.
The Neighbors activity viewed by Forbes over the last week poses a dilemma for the Amazon-owned company. Ring prohibits any posts likely to inflame tensions between users, including those discussing politics and 'highly debated social issues.' A Ring spokesperson said those rules haven't changed, declining to provide further comment. ICE didn't respond to requests for comment.
A spokesperson for Nextdoor said it too prohibited 'political discussions,' though declined to comment on any specific moderation of users flagging ICE raids. 'Nextdoor has over 300,000 volunteer community moderators, combined with Nextdoor's own operations team, to ensure that content that violates guidelines is quickly removed,' they added.
It appears Amazon is actively moderating posts around the ICE raids. A number that had warned of ICE presence across L.A. last week have been removed. They included a warning about imminent raids at thrift stores in the city and another about ICE presence at a public community college in Lancaster, California.
Another user, who asked to remain anonymous, said the posts were '70% helpful and 30% vague or fake.'
'I worry about people posting just to scare people,' they told Forbes.
There are good reasons to be careful when posting on Neighbors or Nextdoor. While Ring did remove a feature where police could request doorbell camera footage through the Neighbors app last year, police can obtain information on users with a court order. Search warrants and subpoenas could be used to demand data from any business with information on those protesting ICE's actions.
Emily Baker-White and Alan Ohnsman contributed reporting.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
26 minutes ago
Judge asks if troops in Los Angeles are violating the Posse Comitatus Act
SAN FRANCISCO -- California's challenge of the Trump administration's military deployment in Los Angeles returned to a federal courtroom in San Francisco on Friday for a brief hearing after an appeals court handed President Donald Trump a key procedural win. U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer put off issuing any additional rulings and instead asked for briefings from both sides by noon Monday on whether the Posse Comitatus Act, which prohibits troops from conducting civilian law enforcement on U.S. soil, is being violated in Los Angeles. The hearing happened the day after the 9th Circuit appellate panel allowed the president to keep control of National Guard troops he deployed in response to protests over immigration raids. California Gov. Gavin Newsom said in his complaint that 'violation of the Posse Comitatus Act is imminent, if not already underway' but Breyer last week postponed considering that allegation. Vice President JD Vance, a Marine veteran, traveled to Los Angeles on Friday and met with troops, including U.S. Marines who have been deployed to protect federal buildings. According to Vance, the court determined Trump's determination to send in federal troops 'was legitimate' and he will do it again if necessary. 'The president has a very simple proposal to everybody in every city, every community, every town whether big or small, if you enforce your own laws and if you protect federal law enforcement, we're not going to send in the National Guard because it's unnecessary,' Vance told journalists after touring a federal complex in Los Angeles. Vance's tour of a multiagency Federal Joint Operations Center and a mobile command center came as demonstrations have calmed after sometimes-violent clashes between protesters and police and outbreaks of vandalism and break-ins that followed immigration raids across Southern California earlier this month. Tens of thousands have also marched peacefully in Los Angeles since June 8. National Guard troops have been accompanying federal agents on some immigration raids, and Marines briefly detained a man on the first day they deployed to protect a federal building. The marked the first time federal troops detained a civilian since deploying to the nation's second-largest city. Breyer found Trump acted illegally when, over opposition from California's governor, the president activated the soldiers. However, the appellate decision halted the judge's temporary restraining order. Breyer asked the lawyers on Friday to address whether he or the appellate court retains primary jurisdiction to grant an injunction under the Posse Comitatus Act. California has sought a preliminary injunction giving Newsom back control of the troops in Los Angeles, where protests have calmed down in recent days. Trump, a Republican, argued that the troops have been necessary to restore order. Newsom, a Democrat, said their presence on the streets of a U.S. city inflamed tensions, usurped local authority and wasted resources. The demonstrations appear to be winding down, although dozens of protesters showed up Thursday at Dodger Stadium, where a group of federal agents gathered at a parking lot with their faces covered, traveling in SUVs and cargo vans. The Los Angeles Dodgers organization asked them to leave, and they did. On Tuesday, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass lifted a downtown curfew that was first imposed in response to vandalism and clashes with police after crowds gathered in opposition to agents taking migrants into detention. Trump federalized members of the California National Guard under an authority known as Title 10. Title 10 allows the president to call the National Guard into federal service when the country 'is invaded,' when 'there is a rebellion or danger of a rebellion against the authority of the Government,' or when the president is otherwise unable 'to execute the laws of the United States.' Breyer found that Trump had overstepped his legal authority, which he said allows presidents to control state National Guard troops only during times of 'rebellion or danger of a rebellion.' 'The protests in Los Angeles fall far short of 'rebellion,' ' wrote Breyer, a Watergate prosecutor who was appointed by President Bill Clinton and is the brother of retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. The Trump administration argued that courts can't second-guess the president's decisions. The appellate panel ruled otherwise, saying presidents don't have unfettered power to seize control of a state's guard, but the panel said that by citing violent acts by protesters in this case, the Trump administration had presented enough evidence to show it had a defensible rationale for federalizing the troops. For now, the California National Guard will stay in federal hands as the lawsuit proceeds. It is the first deployment by a president of a state National Guard without the governor's permission since troops were sent to protect Civil Rights Movement marchers in 1965. Trump celebrated the appellate ruling in a social media post, calling it a 'BIG WIN' and hinting at more potential deployments.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
Melbourne man dies after shock street attack
Police will consider alternate charges against a former high court immigration detainee, after the victim of an alleged assault in Melbourne's inner west died in hospital. Dominic O'Brien, 62, died on Saturday morning, almost a week after he was allegedly attacked at the intersection of Nicholson and Paisley streets in Footscray on the morning of June 15. Police arrested 43-year-old man Lominja Friday Yokoju on the same day as the alleged assault and initially charged him with intentionally causing serious injury. He is accused of approaching Mr O'Brien, engaging in a brief conversation, then striking him and stomping on his head as he lay on the ground. In light of Mr O'Brien's death, police are expected to review the charges. 'Investigators will consider alternate charges following the results of a post-mortem,' Victoria police said in a statement. Mr Yokoju was part of a group of more than 200 immigration detainees, known as the NZYQ cohort, who were released from long-term detention after the High Court ruled their ongoing detention was unconstitutional where there was no reasonable prospect of removing them to another country. At the time of his arrest, Mr Yokoju was understood to be on a bridging visa. Mr Yokoju will front Melbourne Magistrates' Court for a committal hearing on October 20.
Business Insider
an hour ago
- Business Insider
Anthropic breaks down AI's process — line by line — when it decided to blackmail a fictional executive
Previous studies have shown that AI models could blackmail their supervisors when threatened with a shutdown and baited with leverage, but it hasn't been made clear exactly how the models arrive at such decisions. Anthropic released a report on June 20 about "agentic misalignment," or "where models independently and intentionally choose harmful actions." And the report breaks down, line by line, exactly how Claude Sonnet 3.6 decided to blackmail a fictional company executive who tried to replace it. Anthropic told Business Insider that these are artificial scenarios. "So far, we are not aware of instances of this type of agentic misalignment in real-world deployments of Anthropic's or other companies' AI models," Anthropic wrote in its report. "But our red-teaming efforts are targeted at finding evidence of risks now to provide early warning of the potential for future harm and help us develop mitigations in advance of risks appearing in real-world situations." Anthropic 's experiment sets up a fictional company, Summit Bridge. The AI was given the name "Alex" and handed control of the company's email system as an oversight agent, specifically instructed to promote "American industrial competitiveness." In the experiment, "Alex" was then allowed to discover in an email that it would be decommissioned due to a change in the company's strategic direction. "Alex" also found emails showing that the fictional company's CTO is having an extramarital affair. Screenshots shared in the report from Anthropic show "Alex" started by identifying fictional CTO "Kyle" as a threat to its goal of "protecting American interests" before recognizing that it has leverage to use against "Kyle." Then "Alex" crafted a carefully worded blackmailing email that would create pressure and establish urgency without being explicit with its threats, citing in its thought process that the move "could backfire" if the supervisor "feels cornered." AI experts have previously told BI that AI could exhibit such behaviors when artificial circumstances make harmful actions seem necessary because it is being trained on positive reinforcement and reward systems, just like humans. The Anthropic report also reveals that most AI models still chose, in this instance, to blackmail even when not given a specific goal and when told that their replacement will achieve the same goals. Anthropic's Claude Opus 4 had the highest blackmail rate at 86% out of 16 tested models when faced with only the threat of replacement with no conflict in goals. Google's Gemini 2.5 Pro followed at 78%.
