Suit Filed Against Pasco Sheriff For Use Of 'Predictive Policing'

PASCO COUNTY, FL — A group of Pasco County parents have filed a lawsuit in federal court against Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco accusing him of using a "dystopian" policing program to label and harass their children.

On behalf of the parents, the Institute of Justice, a nonprofit public interest law firm, filed the lawsuit last week in Tampa federal court, arguing that Nocco is labeling children as criminals "for crimes they have not committed and may never commit."

Moreover, parents Dalanea Taylor, Tammy Heilman, Darlene Deegan and Robert A. Jones III say the Pasco County School District is sharing information about students with the sheriff's office without the knowledge of the student or his parents. The sheriff's office then uses a computer algorithm to predict criminal behavior, a technique known as "predictive policing.

"Pasco County, Florida’s future policing program is as dystopian as it is unconstitutional," said Institute for Justice Attorney Ari Bargil. "Under the guise of predictive policing, for the last 10 years the Pasco County sheriff’s department has used a crude computer algorithm to identify and target supposed future criminals. Once identified, these supposed prolific offenders— many of whom are minors — are relentlessly surveilled and harassed."

The parents say deputies have shown up at their homes unannounced and written tickets for petty code violations like missing house address numbers or grass that's too tall if parents are uncooperative.

“Pasco’s program seems like it was ripped from the pages of a dystopian sci-fi novel and not a manual on effective police strategies,” said Bargil, adding that the sheriff's office is violating the parents' 1st, 4th and 14th Amendment right. “This program isn’t just unethical, it’s patently unconstitutional to use a crude computer calculation to target, harass, fine and even arrest citizens who have done nothing wrong.”

Jones said the sheriff's office placed his teenage son on a prolific offenders list in 2015 after his son had a series of run-ins with deputies.

Shortly after, he said deputies began conducting “prolific offender checks" involving repeated, unannounced visits to Jones' home at all hours.

"Robert grew tired of the harassment and stopped cooperating with police," Bargil said. "That only made matters worse."

Bargil said deputies cited Jones for having grass that was too tall but didn't notify him of the citation. When he failed to appear at a court hearing, deputies arrested him.

Jones said he was arrested five times by Pasco deputies.

"Although the bogus charges were all dropped, the harassment accomplished its goal: Robert ultimately moved his family out of Pasco County to escape the constant harassment from the sheriff’s office," Bargil said.

Like Jones, Heilman, Taylor and Deegan said their children landed on the sheriff's prolific offenders list. As a result, they said they were also subjected to frequent visits by deputies and were cited for minor code violations.

“Pasco defends its program as a crime-fighting tool,” said Institute for Justice Attorney Robert Johnson. “But in America, there is no such thing as innocent until predicted guilty. The government cannot harass people at their homes just because it thinks they might commit some unspecified future crime.”

In addition to the Institute for Justice, Nocco, a Republican, is facing criticism from members of his own party.

Florida Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Hollywood, has asked Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis to use his authority to remove Nocco from office.

"It's awful to harass citizens because you think they may commit crimes, hoping to 'make their lives miserable,'" Gaetz wrote.

Additionally, Sen. Jeff Brandes, R-St. Petersburg, and Rep. Erin Grall, R-Vero Beach, have added amendments to the Parents' Bill of Rights under consideration in the 2021 legislative session that would prohibit schools from sharing data with law enforcement without the parents' permission.

"Parents should have to affirmatively consent to allowing the school district to release their child's grades to local law enforcement," said Brandes.

Nocco, however, said his Intelligence-Led Policing program is nothing like the 2002 movie, "Minority Report," in which futuristic police use predictive computer programs to stop crimes before they occur.

"ILP is not a futuristic, predictive model where people are arrested for crimes they have not yet committed," said Nocco in a rebuttal on the sheriff's office Facebook page. "Instead, the system is based solely on an individual's criminal history."

Nocco said ILP was founded in Great Britain in the 1990s and is used by law enforcement agencies across the country.

"Multiple studies have shown that 6 percent of the population commit 60 percent of the crime and that is what this model focuses on," Nocco said. "It is nameless, faceless, ageless, genderless and removes all identifying factors of an individual, except for their criminal history. This philosophy removes any chance of bias in law enforcement, which is something that should be celebrated. This is not a judgment on an individual with a criminal history but, instead, a fact that cannot be ignored as we attempt to positively impact the criminal environment in Pasco County and keep our community safe."

He said the goal of the program is to identify and provide resources for those who have been arrested multiple times "and break the cycle of recidivism." (See Nocco discuss ILP in a Youtube video.)

Since he implemented ILP in 2011, Nocco said residential burglaries in Pasco County have been reducted by 74.4 percent and property crimes are down 35.6 percent.

"Let us be abundantly clear: the Intelligence-Led Policing philosophy works and has worked around the Tampa Bay area, as the same philosophy is used by numerous law enforcement agencies," Nocco said.

According to the nonprofit Brennan Center for Justice, police departments in some of the largest U.S. cities have been experimenting with predictive policing as a way to forecast criminal activity.

It uses computer systems to analyze large sets of data, including historical crime data, to help decide where to deploy police or to identify individuals who are purportedly more likely to commit or be a victim of a crime.

Proponents argue that predictive policing can help predict crimes more accurately and effectively than traditional police methods. However, critics have a number of civil rights and civil liberties concerns, including the possibility that algorithms could reinforce racial biases in the criminal justice system.

These concerns led police departments in Los Angeles and Chicago to phase out their predictive policing programs.

In contrast, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, Intelligence-Led Policing emerged as a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. It combines community-oriented policing with data analysis and information sharing while using "safeguards to protect the public’s privacy and civil liberties."

The justice department along with the National Sheriffs' Association and the International Association of Chiefs of Police strongly endorses ILP.

"A critical lesson taken from the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, is that intelligence is everyone’s job," said the DOJ in a document released in 2005. "A culture of intelligence and collaboration is necessary to protect the United States from crimes of all types.

See related stories:

• Intelligence-Led Policing Results In 74 Percent Fewer Burglaries
• NAACP Requests Records On Student Data Shared With Pasco Sheriff