Florida Sheriff Harasses Public With Program Where All Are Innocent Until Predicted Guilty – Forbes

Robert Jones stands in front of his home in Pasco County, Florida

What is a parent to do when the person theyre supposed to callthe people who are supposed to serve and protect youare the same people that are demonizing your house? Robert Jones asked, vividly describing the treatment he and his family suffered under the Pasco County Sheriffs Office predictive policing program.He made those comments during a press conference in which Robert and other parents similarly harassed announced they were suing Pasco County Sheriff Chris Nocco.

Roberts first run-in with the predictive policing program happened not long after his family moved to the Florida county just north of Tampa. Sheriffs deputies visited their home and asked Robert if they could speak to his son as part of what (to Robert) sounded like a scared straight program for teenagers. By Roberts own admission, his son had run with a bad crowd at their previous home and he let the deputies into the home thinking the talk might be helpful.

But the deputies focus wasnt on talking so much as using the opportunity to search the home. They left with empty plastic baggies and returned later to arrest Roberts son, claiming the baggies had tested positive for trace amounts of marijuana. His son was later acquitted of these charges. Understandably, Robert refused to submit to any more warrantless searches when deputies started to regularly visit his home.

When he asked deputies to stop the visits, they refused saying that they were required under the Sheriffs predictive policing program. On some occasions, deputies would demand entry when Robert was at work and only his young daughters were at home. He described his daughters cowering under the bed as officers pounded on the windows and doors.

Soon, deputies started looking for minor code violations on their property that they could ticket. Robert was cited for tall grass, for missing numbers on a mailbox, and for parking his jet ski trailer too close to the house. Even worse, these citations came with court dates that Robert was never informed about. When he missed hearings, he was arrestedthree separate times in a period of just a few months.

This all lead to the sheriffs office getting a warrant to search the home in March 2016. Using that warrant, they took the familys laptops, tablets, and phones. But Robert hadnt committed any crimes, and prosecutors eventually dropped every charge thrown his way. Even after all charges were dropped, Robert still had to get a court order to get back all the property seized from his family. By April 2016, he gave up and moved his family out of the county in the middle of the night.

What was the sheriffs office hoping to accomplish? According to one former deputy, the program that targeted Roberts family is meant to, Make their lives miserable until they move or sue. If that was the plan, it seems to have worked. Robert and other Pasco County residents targeted by the program launched a federal lawsuit represented by the Institute for Justice in March. The suit argues that the program violates residents constitutional rights.

First, this includes the right to be free from unreasonable searches and seizures. Once placed on the list, deputies would regularly visit the homes of the so-called prolific offenders, many of whom were minors. These visits would happen day and night, with deputies demanding to be let into the homes. As was the case with Roberts family, deputies would often peer into windows and demand entry even if only minor children were home at the time.

Such visits were performed without warrants and courts have instructed that, while the Fourth Amendment allows law enforcement to knock on someones door, it doesnt let officers force their way into a home or look into the windows like a peeping tom.

Second, when people like Robert insisted on protecting their Fourth Amendment rights, deputies would then commit a further violation of rights by fining them for petty code violations using them as a means of entering homes without a warrant.

When he came into office a decade ago, the Pasco County Sheriff bragged that he would create a futuristic policing program to stop crime before it happens. But the predictive policing program Pasco County got violates rights and fails to fight crime. The Tampa Bay Times, in its investigative reporting on the program, found that: Pascos drop in property crimes was similar to the decline in the seven-largest nearby police jurisdictions. And shockingly, Over the same time period, violent crime increased only in Pasco. Imagine how much better life in Pasco County might be if those in the sheriffs office had dedicated the time they spent harassing innocent civilians through their predictive policing scheme and instead dedicated that time to going after actual violent criminals.

For now, it is up to the courts to end this program once and for all and discourage other law enforcement agencies from following suit. Here is hoping other law enforcement agencies dont make the same error of mistaking harassment for policing.

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Florida Sheriff Harasses Public With Program Where All Are Innocent Until Predicted Guilty - Forbes