I'm sure they justify it with stats- See, that person was illegal raising chickens, so we were right to target them- despite the fact that this level of scrutiny applied to literally anyone would result in self-justifying enforcement stats. And, of course, when you issue thousands of dollars of fines to people who can't afford it you're likely to have more property crime. I feel like there should be a term for this, induced crime or something- maybe there already is.
Also some of this appears flat out illegal. "Peering through a window in his house and noticing a 17-year-old friend of his son smoking a cigarette." Is that a valid search?
Starnes is a plaintiff in an ongoing federal lawsuit that accuses the agency of pushing out employees who criticized specific policies, including the intelligence program.
Funny which things police unions go to the mat for when protecting employees, and which ones they don't care about.
Pasco is an overwhelmingly white county, and the program did not appear to disproportionately target people based on race.
I'm sure the reporters ran the stats, but half the people pictured in the story are black which seems unlikely for an unbiased program in an overwhelmingly white county.
I saw a tweet yesterday to the effect of:
"So all these people who are so passionate about crossing state lines to protect property must be heading to California to fight the wildfires, right? right?"
mmhmm.
Police in all cities presumably go on these vendettas as a matter of course when they "know" something, through non-database means, about someone they've crossed paths with.
Well, sure, but it's depressing to see it institutionalized and intentionally perpetuated on a mass scale.
Between this and Julie Brown's fantastic work, it looks like FL is a great place to do investigative journalism.
This must have been relatively expensive to write, many weeks of work.
Depressing that this is what police forces choose to do. Hopefully the article will produce change.
Wow the department of pre-crime 2020.
Living in the future is amazing.
3: When my high-school friend G was divorcing her physically abusive cop husband, he would routinely cruise by the place she had gone with the kids and call in the license plates of any car in the driveway. I made sure to drive my mom's car when I went to visit.
But I'm sure that the police union rooted out that behavior right quick and the culture of the organization wasn't at all hostile to women.