Targeted: A futuristic data policing program is harassing Pasco County families

[teach1st]

Targeted: A futuristic data policing program is harassing Pasco County families
Tampa Bay Times, 9/3/2020

First the Sheriff’s Office generates lists of people it considers likely to break the law, based on arrest histories, unspecified intelligence and arbitrary decisions by police analysts.

Then it sends deputies to find and interrogate anyone whose name appears, often without probable cause, a search warrant or evidence of a specific crime.

They swarm homes in the middle of the night, waking families and embarrassing people in front of their neighbors. They write tickets for missing mailbox numbers and overgrown grass, saddling residents with court dates and fines. They come again and again, making arrests for any reason they can.

One former deputy described the directive like this: “Make their lives miserable until they move or sue.”

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[lark]

1. This ought to be useful in court and the families need to sue the police.

This is total BS and another right disolved in drumpfs' America - if they don't fight back.

[ret5hd]

2. Film EVERYTHING.

No warrant - No enter. Get off the property NOW.

Do not answer questions.

Am I being detained? If not, leave immediately.

Do not answer questions.

Learn the laws in your state regarding need to ID.

Do not answer questions.

[mercuryblues]

3. Only when they did that

The police would give them citations for their grass not mowed, no numbers on their mailbox, traffic citation etc. Which put them into the system. If they could afford to pay the fines or missed a court date, they were arrested.

[ret5hd]

4. That was going to happen anyway.

Do ya think the cops were going to let them go if they acted all “yassuh”, “nosuh”, “whatevayasaysuh”?

[Zorro]

5. Very informative and a bit disturbing

There is a need for an effective community police force, but systemic harassing over chickenshit stuff is an abuse that definitely needs to be curtailed.

I own a home in Pasco County, and see a remarkable number of patrol cars on the road every time I go out. It's both reassuring and discomforting at the same time.

Pasco County was one of the featured locations on A&E's Live PD show until about a year ago, until (I guess) they felt like they were getting too much notoriety. The sheriff's office used to put addresses of homes they were called to online along with the complaint, but they cut that out about the same time.

The paper may win a Pulitzer for this reporting.

[CatLady78]

6. Wth

That sounds like it is straight out of a dystopian nightmare

It is ridiculous how much 2020 looks like the dystopian sci fi flicks I used to watch...right down to the bloody masks...

I don't watch stuff like that anymore...sitcoms work.