Originally published at: Florida cops use AI to target people for a new "enhanced scrutiny" program | Boing Boing
…
5 Likes
Just west of the other county (Brevard) that openly invited shitty cops to come to Florida because there are plenty of jobs for them there. Good times, good times.
17 Likes
Not sure if that letter is from ‘1984’ or ‘Brazil’.
20 Likes
As long as the program only targets the poor and people of color, the cult of Trump will heartily approve.
15 Likes
writing tickets for violations like overgrown grass
Are you fucking shitting me?
Am I right in thinking US prisons are massively overcrowded? I wonder why…
15 Likes
This is the sum total of the reasoning. Declare “certain people” (gee, I wonder who that might include?) as undesirable and then drive them out, exactly as the deputy has described. The legality of this kind of action has got to be questionable at best, but the Trumpification of the judicial system leaves me with little hope for an honest review of it.
21 Likes
We are pleased to inform you that you have been selected to participate in a Prolific Offender Program
The sneering, smirking tone of the bully. And yet they still wonder why cops are so despised by vulnerable communities.
Lots of American police and sheriff’s departments are funded to a substantial degree by a constant stream of petty but regressive fines. It’s an extension of the concept of behind the “speed trap” podunk towns in Florida that targetted tourists. In cases like this (and, notoriously, in Ferguson, Missouri) they’re aimed at “undesirable” (read POC) local residents, and the constant stream of fines drives them further and further into debt and desperation. It’s legalised harassment and extortion, and this “precrime” list takes things to the next logical step.
18 Likes
but the program works! as soon as a person as targeted, crime is uncovered! see? (ugh)
3 Likes
Sounds like the oppressed residents need to do a Skidmore, MO on Sheriff’s department HQ.
I’m not super outraged as this just codifies something that’s always been done - in fact, this may be a good thing to that extent since now there’s an actual program to point people to when they claim it doesn’t exist …
… but damn if that letter isn’t the spitting image of felicitous cinematic Nazi speak.
Call me when they start enrolling babies, need to start identifying those Deltas ASAP.
6 Likes
Seems like an opportunity for an enterprising lawyer to organize letter recipients into a group and file a class-action suit against the police department. For enough to bankrupt it.
5 Likes
What was the point of sending out the letter? To me it kind of looks like the letter indicates that they aren’t actually going to do any increased surveillance but want the “participants” to act as though they are. It’s almost the equivalent of the fake highway patrol car on the freeway, where the goal is to get less crime by simply announcing that there is law enforcement presence without there actually being any.
1 Like
Florida is a big no fly zone for us, now I’m convinced we made the correct decision.
10 Likes
I mean, it would be cool if there were actual services and assistance offered to people. Free education, fast track housing and food assistance, mental health support or high quality childcare. Wouldn’t that be nice?
8 Likes
You can’t bankrupt them. In fact, they will never see the impact at all. It will fall on the taxpayers to fund any settlement, while the cops who caused it go merrily on their way.
11 Likes
OK
Absolutely no shock.
20 Likes
I take your point. Police departments do have budgets though, and I can imagine that a particularly prodigal police department might wind up facing some constraints even from the most enthusiastic “thin blue line” community.
2 Likes
It’s not clear how that’s supposed to help someone who’s dealing with mental health or substance abuse or domestic violence or homelessness.
That would be a false premise. They have no intention of helping anybody- except maybe the folks already in town who don’t want “those people” around.
12 Likes
I was only half-kidding about the preschoolers thing, of course they would do this.
This story is much worse than OC, it literally re-classifies at-risk children (victims of abuse, kids with behavioral disorders, the extreme poor) as “potential prolific offenders.”
11 Likes
I’m not sure what distinction you are trying to make though? Isn’t that still harassment and intimidation? Like kind of the point is harassment and intimidation of targeted individuals on questiononable grounds is bad, and the problem then is the harassment itself, and the letter is part of that harassment.
10 Likes
