The Pasco County Sheriff’s Office in Florida said it has stopped keeping a list of people deemed likely to commit future crimes and repeatedly sending deputies to their homes, according to documents filed in a federal lawsuit. The agency’s practice of targeting people deemed at risk of committing crimes was the subject of a 2020 Tampa Bay Times investigation, supported by the Fund, which won the Pulitzer Prize. The Times investigation found that the sheriff’s office would send deputies to find and interrogate anyone whose name appeared on the list of those the agency considered likely to break the law. The Times also investigated another sheriff’s office program that used data from the local school district and the state Department of Children and Families to assemble a list of children deemed likely to become criminals. As a result of the reporting, the federal lawsuit was filed, multiple federal investigations were launched and state legislation was introduced.
Tampa area sheriff drops controversial intelligence program, three years after grantee exposed it
