To predict and serve?

I have to admit that the first time I heard the term "predictive policing," I looked down to see if my leg was being pulled. But no, it's a thing. And of course, it's happening in Florida. Big surprise, but the surprise is who is against it!

The story is, the Pasco County Sheriff Department uses money that could be used to have police out among the public, establishing community connections and investigating crime, and instead they have  ‘The Intelligence-Led Policing Section’ (ILP), which has as its raison d’être "to advance the agency’s crime fighting initiatives to a modern-day philosophy.” They pay 30 people to do this: a director, manager, two analyst supervisors, and twenty-odd analysts. 

Their ‘predictive policing’, is what they call a way to prevent crime by figuring out who might be up to something before they even take the notion to commit a crime. To do this, they send deputies to the homes of such people to let them know they are being watched. Many of the people receiving these visits are children.

The computer algorithm (have you noticed that word coming up all the time lately?) that the ILP cranks out gives the deputies their list, and off they go, knocking on doors. One might be on the list for having committed crimes in the past, for having been accused or suspected of a crime, for having WITNESSED a crime, or even for being the VICTIM of a crime.

The deputies write reports about the people on their lists by dropping by their homes or workplaces without an appointment and grilling them about their family, their friends and acquaintances, and their plans for the day.

And once a person has been placed on the "Public Offender" list, they or their associates wind up being cited for minor code violations for "being uncooperative." A woman was fined $2,500 because she had chickens roosting in her back yard. Another person received a fine of $3,000 for having tall grass and not displaying their house number.

SO now, someone is trying to rid the community of this Orwellian nonsense. Pasco County families have joined together to sue Sheriff Chris Nocco, saying that his program is "punishing people for crimes they have not committed and may never commit."  The Sheriff filed a motion to dismiss the case against the program, but Judge Steven D. Merryday rejected that request.

"What are you planning to do this afternoon?"

"(This) decision is an important step toward the ultimate dismantling of the program," said Ari Bargil, an attorney at the Institute for Justice, which represents the families, and avers that the program allegedly violates the first, fourth, and fourteenth amendments.

Now comes the shockeroo!

Rep. Matt Gaetz suggested Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis use his authority to remove Sheriff Nocco for running this program to target and harass residents.

“I don’t care that this is being done by a GOP Sheriff,” Gaetz wrote. “It’s awful to harass citizens because you think they may commit crimes, hoping to ‘make their lives miserable.’ "

Son, when Matt Gaetz says you are awful, you are double-secret awful! 

In related news, the county's Fire Department will now ride around hosing off houses, cars, and people that they think might catch on fire soon. And the Health Dept. is instituting a preventive program of performing heart bypass surgery on people seen eating cheeseburgers and pizzas without even so much as a salad.