Plain Old Justice

By K. W. Locke

    Some people can be "intelligent" without having a lick of sense.  But a smart person without any trace of wisdom is like a race car without brakes.  

    Convinced they are doing good, they go full speed ahead.  As for anyone in their path?  Look Out!

     Consider Chris Nocco, the sheriff of Pasco County, Florida, a suburban area north of Tampa.  His bright idea:  Figure out who is likely to commit a crime, and then watch that person like a hawk.

     He calls it "intelligence-led policing."  And how does the sheriff know who is likely to commit a crime?  Does he employ psychics, as in the film Minority Report?  No.  The computer tells him.

    In practice, his plan does more than watch someone.  Deputies make that person's life miserable, so miserable, in fact, that with any luck he will move out of the county and live somewhere else

   How does that differ from the "social credit program" imposed on the Chinese people by its communist government?  Well, in China the government is watching everyone.  In Pasco County, the sheriff only is watching those individuals unlucky enough to get on his list.

     But getting on that list is easy, and you can make the list without ever doing anything wrong.  If you're mentioned in a police report, even as a witness or bystander, your name goes into the computer and you are assigned a score.  According to reports, just being a friend of someone the sheriff deems a bad guy can get you points.

    Accumulate enough points and the computer puts your name on the list of "Prolific Offenders."  It doesn't matter whether you have ever been convicted of a crime.  The sheriff brands you an "offender" because he believes you are likely to commit a crime.

    The sheriff doesn't publish the list and there's no way for a person to get his name removed.  Once you get on the sheriff's list, his deputies will start showing up at unpredictable times and asking you nosy questions.

     Sometimes they will demand to search your house, even though they don't have a warrant.  Refuse, and they have ways of getting even.

    One of their favorite ways of retaliation is to cite you for building code violations, such as having grass that's too tall.   Deputies sometimes measure the grass with a ruler.  Or, they may find that one of the street numbers has fallen off your mailbox.

    With help from the nonprofit Institute for Justice, some of the harassed people have sued the sheriff.   It's hardly the first legal challenge to systems of "predictive policing."  Such systems have prompted litigation across the country, and scholarly criticism.

    One of the plaintiffs in the Pasco County lawsuit is Robert Jones.  He isn't on the sheriff's list but his son is.

    On one unannounced visit, the deputies looked in Jones' window and saw his son inside with another teenager.  The son was smoking.

    But the son wouldn't come outside and the father refused to make the teenager come out.  So, the deputies arrested the father on charges of contributing to the delinquency of a minor and resisting an officer.

    At other times the officers cited him for building code violations such as having grass too long, but no one informed Jones that he must appear in court on a certain date.  So, the deputies arrested him for failure to appear.

    All charges against Jones were dropped, but the arrests are on his record.  Finally, he and his family moved to another county.

    The sheriff keeps track of how energetically his officers are harassing people on the list.  Supervisors ask the deputies how many visits they have made each day to make sure they aren't slacking off.  Some officers have quit.

    When a Tampa newspaper published articles revealing the program, the sheriff defended it vigorously.  He thinks he's doing good.  And that's scary.