At 9:35 p.m. May 29, Santa Monica police were notified of a burglary on a quiet cul-de-sac off San Vicente Boulevard. At 11:39 a.m. June 2, authorities responded to the 2300 block of Montana Avenue regarding an attempted burglary.
They’re the kinds of calls that convince Jamie Siminoff his locally based company, Ring, is worthwhile.
Ring, which offers video-enabled doorbells with motion detection and remote answering technology, aims to give homeowners another weapon in the ongoing fight against neighborhood crime.
“The same thing is happening everywhere,” he said, noting the susceptibility of vacant residences. “Our presence in our homes has gone way down, and you’ve created these opportunistic nonviolent thieves. It’s a problem that exists almost in the same form everywhere around the world.”
Siminoff’s company is currently expanding on the east side of 26th Street between Broadway and Colorado Avenue in Santa Monica, where it has rented space for nearly three years. It moved into a warehouse in late 2013, added more space last summer and grew into a third building last week. A fourth will be ready for the company around mid-August.
Siminoff, a Pacific Palisades resident, found the local real estate when his son was attending school in Santa Monica. His company now employs more than 100 people locally, with additional customer service support in Phoenix.
The creation of the company was practical in nature for Siminoff, who couldn’t hear his doorbell ring as he worked in his home’s garage. He added that his wife often didn’t feel comfortable answering their front door, which led him to consider the potential security benefits of the device.
When someone pushes a Ring customer’s doorbell, the customer can answer from inside the home or, using a smartphone, from another location. The product is built on the premise that burglars sometimes ring doorbells to see if someone is home before breaking in.
“No one will know whether or not you’re really there,” Siminoff said, adding that motion detection can also trigger alerts to customers. “Ninety-nine percent of burglars are not going to enter a home with someone in it. It does happen, but it’s rare. Usually it’s because they thought the home was empty.”
Siminoff launched Ring in late 2012 and started shipping the product about a year later, around the time the product was featured on business reality television show “Shark Tank.” And although the company did not receive funding from the show’s investors, Siminoff said, the publicity fueled consumer interest.
Property crime remains an issue on the Westside, according to Santa Monica Police Department data. The department recorded 535 burglaries in 2014, the most recent year for which figures were immediately available. That’s down substantially from a peak of 2,911 in 1980 but up 31 percent from the 408 logged in 2010.
The local police department not endorse specific products, but officials encourage residents to consider using a variety of tools and technologies to deter crime in their neighborhoods.
“The front door is this area of crime,” Siminoff said, “and this is something that can transform that.”
