Predictive-policing is wrong, but it stems from the long-time surveillance of the American people. It is these various surveillance mechanisms that have empowered the state to target anyone for anything, even before they commit a crime — if they were going to commit a crime at all. Thus, DHS should end PITT’s use of financial information and other data for predictive-policing. Congress should direct the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to independently audit the DHS’s data sources, targeting criteria, retention practices, false-positive rates, and information-sharing, and assess the program’s compliance with the Fourth Amendment and other applicable laws. The GAO should be required to publish its findings for further action.
Congress must ensure that federal agencies cannot circumvent any Fourth Amendment protections by using secret profiles to manufacture suspicion. Judicial authorization should be required before the DHS can use sensitive financial records in an investigation of a specific suspected crime, and full disclosure whenever federal data analysis triggers a traffic stop.
Surveillance places all of us at the judgment and mercy of the state, where our activities, associations, or beliefs can easily be deemed criminal — or potentially criminal — and we have no way of defending ourselves. This is deeply un-American. The state should not be leveraging information to decide whether or not you may be a criminal and then tipping local law enforcement based on their judgment. The American people should be free to live authentically and with dignity without fear of wrongful prosecution. It is within our constitutional rights, and it is time the federal government be reminded of the
