A sheriff launched an algorithm to predict who might commit a crime. Dozens of people said they were harassed by deputies for no reason.

• A Florida sheriff's office deployed a futuristic algorithm that uses crime data to predict who is likely to commit another crime.
• In a sweeping six-month investigation published this week, the Tampa Bay Times reported that the algorithm relied on questionable data and arbitrary decisions and led to the serial harassment of people without any evidence of specific crimes.
• According to the report, former sheriff's office employees said officers went to the homes of people singled out by the algorithm, charged them with zoning violations, and made arrests for any reason they could. Those charges were fed back into the algorithm.
• The report shines a light on the pitfalls of algorithm-driven policing and casts doubt on AI-powered tools meant to fight crime.

A central Florida sheriff built an algorithm meant to predict which people in his jurisdiction were likely to commit a crime in the future.

But according to a six-month investigation published this week by the Tampa Bay Times, the high-tech tool deployed by the Pasco Sheriff's Office didn't lead to a reduction in violent crime — instead, 21 families singled out by the algorithm said they were routinely harassed by deputies, even when there was no evidence of a specific crime.

In September 2019, deputies showed up at 15-year-old Rio Wojtecki's door because the algorithm had determined Rio was one of the county's "Top 5" at risk of committing more crimes, the Tampa Bay Times reported.

Complimentary Tech Event

Transform talent with learning that works

Capability development is critical for businesses who want to push the envelope of innovation.Discover how business leaders are strategizing around building talent capabilities and empowering employee transformation.Know More

Before that, Rio had been arrested only one time, a year prior, and was charged with sneaking into a carport and stealing motorized bicycles. Rio had already been assigned a juvenile probation officer — but because of the algorithm, police showed up at Rio's house to question him at least 21 times, beginning with that September visit, Rio's mother told the Tampa Bay Times.

Shortly after one visit from deputies in January, Rio began experiencing difficulty breathing and collapsed in his home, the report said. His mother told the newspaper she called an ambulance and that an emergency-room doctor later found that Rio was experiencing the effects of extreme anxiety. But the deputies' visits to his family's home didn't stop.

According to the Tampa Bay Times report — which drew on court records, police body-camera footage, the accounts of dozens of people targeted by the sheriff's algorithm, and interviews with former employees of the Pasco Sheriff's Office — the predictive-policing tool relied on questionable data sources and arbitrary decisions.

People's criminal records — including charges that were later dropped — were fed into the algorithm to determine potential future offenders. Former employees of the sheriff's office said deputies were instructed to visit the homes of people the algorithm selected, charge them with zoning violations, and make arrests for any reason they could. Those violations and arrests were then fed back into the algorithm, according to the Tampa Bay Times.

The report highlights the pitfalls of algorithm-driven policing, sometimes called predictive policing, which relies on crime data to predict future offenders. Civil-rights groups have called the practice unconstitutional, and law-enforcement researchers question its efficacy. In recent years, police departments in major cities including Los Angeles and Richmond, Virginia, discontinued their predictive-policing programs because of concerns over their fairness and effectiveness.

In a statement to Business Insider, a spokesperson for the Pasco Sheriff's Office defended the practice, saying other police departments use similar methods, and accused the Tampa Bay Times of depicting "basic law enforcement functions" as unnecessary harassment. The sheriff's office also published a Facebook post criticizing the newspaper's report.

"Unfortunately, the media outlet responsible for this piece didn't feel compelled to shed light on facts, and instead chose to weave a salacious, fictitious tale," the spokesperson said.

Read the full Tampa Bay Times investigation here.