Dear John,

‘Tis the Season for stopping dystopian government programs; just yesterday, we ended Pasco County, Florida’s horrible predictive policing system!

This victory is a testament to the importance of your steadfast support as we put together a pathbreaking but complicated case to halt what was once considered a cutting-edge police tool.

IJ launched this case in 2021. After three years of gathering devastating evidence—including body-cam footage and through subpoenas, depositions, hearings, and numerous preliminary arguments—we were finally ready to put this program literally on trial, which was scheduled to begin yesterday. 

You may recall that this program bore more than a passing resemblance to the film Minority Report. The sheriff’s office used arbitrary criteria combined with a supposedly sophisticated algorithm to “predict” which people in the community, including local teenagers, might commit future crimes.

Police then harassed individuals and families by going to their homes unannounced—sometimes multiple times a week—to interrogate them. And if police felt families weren’t sufficiently cooperative, they would issue citations for harmless code violations.

You can see some of the real-life video evidence we gathered in this case here ([link removed] ) .

The IJ case team was on the ground in Florida preparing when Pasco capitulated on the eve of the trial. The Sheriff’s office not only agreed to end the program, they also admitted that they violated the Fourth Amendment by visiting our clients’ property repeatedly and without cause; they admitted they violated the First Amendment by enforcing guilt by association; and they admitted they violated due process rights by putting people on a government list without adequate procedures.

We also made sure that the agreement to end this program is enforceable by the court so if there is any backsliding by the sheriff’s office, we can go right back to the judge. They agreed to a six-figure payment to our clients for at least a measure of compensation for what they had to endure.

As you know, many IJ cases are about stopping nationwide abuses, but some—as in Pasco—are about preventing unbelievably abusive things from becoming nationwide trends. The sheriff’s office thought they were launching an innovative program to systematically violate the Constitution, and, if left unchallenged, this program could have caught on in multiple jurisdictions.

No more. Because of our generous supporters, we were able to stop this dead in its tracks. Thank you for standing with us as we fight to protect freedom and hold government accountable. Together, we can ensure that innovation does not undermine liberty but advances it.

 

Scott

Scott G. Bullock

President and Chief Counsel

Institute for Justice

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