Scott Mc Kiernan Presents zReportage.com Story of the Week#777:TUESDAY March 9, 2021: ‘TARGETED’ from ZUMA Press award winning Tampa Bay Times photographer Douglas R. Clifford and investigative reporters Kathleen McGrory and Neil Bedi.
zReportage.com Story of the Week #777: TUESDAY March 9, 2021: ‘TARGETED’ from ZUMA Press award winning Tampa Bay Times photographer Douglas R. Clifford and investigative reporters Kathleen McGrory and Neil Bedi: Florida’s Pasco County sheriff Chris Nocco took office in 2011 with a bold plan: to create a cutting-edge intelligence program that could stop crime before it happened. What he actually built was a system to continuously monitor and harass Pasco County residents, a Tampa Bay Times investigation has found. First the Sheriff’s Office generates lists of people it considers likely to break the law, based on arrest histories, then sends deputies to find and interrogate anyone whose name appears, often without probable cause, a search warrant or evidence of a specific crime. They swarm homes in the middle of the night, waking families and embarrassing people in front of their neighbors. In just five years, Nocco’s signature program has ensnared almost 1,000 people, with at least 1 in 10 were younger than 18. Some of the young people were labeled targets despite having only one or two arrests. One former deputy described the directive ‘Make their lives miserable until they move or sue.’ Welcome to: ‘TARGETED’
Scott Mc Kiernan, Founder & Editor-in-Chief, ZUMA Press
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