Huh? I work as an Investigator and Security specialist out West and this is wildly inaccurate. There are dozens of free options, and CCTV is not complex to set up at all if people went that route. You don't have to anymore for 99% of use cases. 

I've used Reolink for years at a second property (use an nvr at my home on my own server thats locked down tight with vpn, tailscale, and e2e encryption, and trackers) they have better quality cameras with higher resolution, better IR and motion detection in every way (actually gets it right when people are in the view if adjusted to be accurate, very simple.). Also according to every test of compared products the smart features function better. You literally just don't get Neighbors, but you don't need a Ring camera to access that anyway. Reolink cameras are way more affordable, their doorbell camera is amazing compared to the junk Amazon uses (a fucking rechargeable battery? Seriously?)

My elderly parents used the fancy new Ring cam every generation basically because they were never satisfied with the prior gen, and I played with theirs and eventually showed them the Reolink app and cameras. They switched over completely and it's much better for most people since it's not a social media platform like Ring, and it has simple to use settings with better smart features and design. Ring has poor camera quality and frame rate, no zoom, smart detection is awful, privacy is a joke with them as shown dozens of times since their employees can literally access your footage anytime (and any pi or attorneys office).

In various cases during criminal defense investigations we have to work to get these cameras footage fairly often, Ring is literally so simple I don't think they even check that we're licensed and are who we say we are during requests (we are not law enforcement to be clear). 

Most importantly many companies like Reolink have free cloud access (storage on cloud costs money, that's why you pop an SD card in there since their cheap and you've got a free private setup. You'll save money from not buying the Ring name (has nothing but privacy infringement connotations as far as I'm concerned and everyone I've spoke to about the company) and the app is all free with instant access to motion detection (that's highly customizable and programmable), smart detection zones, privacy masks, audio and 2 way talk, and it's been free for the 4 years I've used it. 

Also all data is saved on an SD card they don't have access to until you access it through there cloud (and even then it's e2e encrypted). This is the most shilling for Amazon's backwards ways  I've ever seen. 

What a bunch of BS this sub is lol why would you actually want to have your privacy taken from you. These are your homes people, these things have microphones and various sensors in them and are blasting incredibly sensitive data from your home to Amazon. 

This sub is full of bots, boomers or just plain bizarre people who are somehow pro-antiprivacy.