They're Trump's equivalent of Hitler's SS and Shah Pahlavi's Savaki force. They work outside the law to do Dear Leader's bidding to surveil, interrogate and suppress "dissents."
DHS in general probably needs a change. Not even sure if it’s congruent with its original purpose, kind of feels like police sprawl. Begs the question of if they aren’t duplicating FBI and even CIA adjacent work.
Border Patrol is running secretive predictive policing units that analyze Americans’ financial activity and other data, then feed that intelligence to local police who pull people over who are not suspected of any specific crime, but which the government thinks may be worth searching, 404 Media has found.
The units, the name of which 404 Media is revealing here for the first time, are called Predictive Intelligence Targeting Teams (PITT). In one case, a PITT analyzed the financial activity of a man who was driving across Montana, and local authorities stopped him under the pretense of an obstructed license plate and charged him with a DUI.
404 Media identified one PITT in the Spokane Sector, Washington, which polices the U.S. border with Canada, and another in the Laredo Sector, Texas, which polices the border with Mexico. The findings add to an Associated Press investigation from last year which found Border Patrol was using automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) as part of the same wide-spanning predictive policing program.
Demanding the truth is the best protection against parallel construction. The government will do the same with these charges as it does with cellphone interceptors: when forced to acknowledge the REAL probable cause, it will drop the charges.
Shouldn’t this fall under something we can FOIA? This and NSLs are insane to me. The government can just violate laws with impunity because a citizen has no grounds to sue to force discovery. If a citizen has no legitimate interest in their rights being violated then who the help does?
Idk there’s definitely a lot of legal details here I’m glossing over but something is very fundamentally broken with the jurisdiction to bring a lawsuit in many cases.
Paywalled articles are not allowed on the sub Reddit. If you run into issues, the first thing to try is a different browser. Sometimes that’s the problem. Or you can always check archive.
“
“The bottom line is genuine probable cause cannot be synthetically generated,” Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Security and Surveillance Project at the Center For Democracy & Technology, told 404 Media in an email.
Here Border Patrol seems to be “using parallel construction to cloak the reason behind its car stops in secrecy. If we can't meaningfully review and evaluate these systems, we can't trust them,” he added.”
This is how people get pulled over because they withdrew enough cash for a downpayment on a house where they are moving to and end up getting randomly pulled over and losing that money because it is assumed to be drug money.
Im sure this is why they started tracking people sending money abroad, specifically low income repetitive transfers that would be used to support families (e.g. Mexico) under the guise of stopping drugs and cartels.
Like the movie…How soon until cash is banned? “ Enemy of The State” is turning real. They know where you’re shopping with your cards and what you bought. They know where your GPS was from your phone.
Also pedophiles, people who commit treason, people who steal from the government, and people who spread disinformation in order to destabilize a nation.
At this point in the ongoing conspiracy movie, Our hero begins to realize just what all the data centers are being built for. He remembers another movie that he watched a few years ago called "The Lives of Others".
Se7en_speed | 18 hours ago
Unless there is any relation to smuggling what is border patrol doing investigating American citizens?
Border patrol/ICE seems to be completely unhinged in their activities and need to be reigned in.
KilowogTrout | 17 hours ago
They're the folks that are most loyal to Trump. That's why they get the most funding. They're effectively his own police force.
manimal28 | 15 hours ago
> Unless there is any relation to smuggling what is border patrol doing investigating American citizens?
They are doing what typical fascists do by the looks of it.
Rescuepets777 | 13 hours ago
They're Trump's equivalent of Hitler's SS and Shah Pahlavi's Savaki force. They work outside the law to do Dear Leader's bidding to surveil, interrogate and suppress "dissents."
meltbox | 6 hours ago
DHS in general probably needs a change. Not even sure if it’s congruent with its original purpose, kind of feels like police sprawl. Begs the question of if they aren’t duplicating FBI and even CIA adjacent work.
[OP] 404mediaco | 19 hours ago
Border Patrol is running secretive predictive policing units that analyze Americans’ financial activity and other data, then feed that intelligence to local police who pull people over who are not suspected of any specific crime, but which the government thinks may be worth searching, 404 Media has found.
The units, the name of which 404 Media is revealing here for the first time, are called Predictive Intelligence Targeting Teams (PITT). In one case, a PITT analyzed the financial activity of a man who was driving across Montana, and local authorities stopped him under the pretense of an obstructed license plate and charged him with a DUI.
404 Media identified one PITT in the Spokane Sector, Washington, which polices the U.S. border with Canada, and another in the Laredo Sector, Texas, which polices the border with Mexico. The findings add to an Associated Press investigation from last year which found Border Patrol was using automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) as part of the same wide-spanning predictive policing program.
Read now: https://www.404media.co/a-secretive-dhs-predictive-policing-unit-is-analyzing-americans-financial-habits-and-pulling-them-over/
BuzzerWhirr | 19 hours ago
Parallel construction.
Demanding the truth is the best protection against parallel construction. The government will do the same with these charges as it does with cellphone interceptors: when forced to acknowledge the REAL probable cause, it will drop the charges.
meltbox | 6 hours ago
Shouldn’t this fall under something we can FOIA? This and NSLs are insane to me. The government can just violate laws with impunity because a citizen has no grounds to sue to force discovery. If a citizen has no legitimate interest in their rights being violated then who the help does?
Idk there’s definitely a lot of legal details here I’m glossing over but something is very fundamentally broken with the jurisdiction to bring a lawsuit in many cases.
Randomnonsense5 | 18 hours ago
Are there bald chicks floating in a tank somewhere? Philip K. Dick was an absolute prophet.
umbraundecim | 13 hours ago
Pulled over for a obstructed plate when the real reason he was pulled over required his plate to be automatically read and therefore not obstructed...
simAlity | 12 hours ago
I really want to read this story but it's paywalled and I don't want to subscribe just for a single article. Can somebody do us a solid?
Dullboxcuttercloud | 6 hours ago
Try a different browser or archive. There does not appear to be a paywall. They are not permitted on the sub.
DruidHeart | 13 hours ago
I was not able to access the whole article. Does it say what type of financial activity?
sighbourbon | 6 hours ago
https://archive.is/20260908191630/https://www.404media.co/a-secretive-dhs-predictive-policing-unit-is-analyzing-americans-financial-habits-and-pulling-them-over/
archive.is. archive.ph
renovepaywall.com
Dullboxcuttercloud | 6 hours ago
Paywalled articles are not allowed on the sub Reddit. If you run into issues, the first thing to try is a different browser. Sometimes that’s the problem. Or you can always check archive.
horseradishstalker | 17 hours ago
“ “The bottom line is genuine probable cause cannot be synthetically generated,” Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Security and Surveillance Project at the Center For Democracy & Technology, told 404 Media in an email.
Here Border Patrol seems to be “using parallel construction to cloak the reason behind its car stops in secrecy. If we can't meaningfully review and evaluate these systems, we can't trust them,” he added.”
ffchusky | 18 hours ago
Ive been waiting for minority report to be real. Thought it would take a little longer though.
jandrese | 16 hours ago
This is how people get pulled over because they withdrew enough cash for a downpayment on a house where they are moving to and end up getting randomly pulled over and losing that money because it is assumed to be drug money.
allothernamestaken | 15 hours ago
"Our database indicates to us that the contents of this vehicle are ripe for civil asset forfeiture."
meltbox | 6 hours ago
“You pulled this money you legally earned and paid taxes on and put in a bank and therefore it is drug money.”
Someone using this logic should be sent straight under the jail for being too dumb to safely interact with the public.
illegible | 16 hours ago
Im sure this is why they started tracking people sending money abroad, specifically low income repetitive transfers that would be used to support families (e.g. Mexico) under the guise of stopping drugs and cartels.
javoss88 | 15 hours ago
Oh gah. We’ve become the worst place in this universe
to attempt to exist
Eatthebankers2 | 13 hours ago
Like the movie…How soon until cash is banned? “ Enemy of The State” is turning real. They know where you’re shopping with your cards and what you bought. They know where your GPS was from your phone.
xitizen7 | 17 hours ago
How about use some of this tech to process r@pe kits, find missing children and solve unsolved murders - actual committed crimes.
In other words - r@pist, kidn@ppers and mxrderers should be the target
DruidHeart | 13 hours ago
Also pedophiles, people who commit treason, people who steal from the government, and people who spread disinformation in order to destabilize a nation.
meltbox | 6 hours ago
But that’s work. Why do work when flock have button I press to get criminal?
Baeolophus_bicolor | 12 hours ago
the first step would be not censoring the use of actual words when discussing a societal issue like a grown up.
xitizen7 | 4 hours ago
The adult thing for you to do is add something valuable to the conversation.
I modified the words so that the mods wouldn't remove the post you dipsh#t
Dry-Onion4678 | 14 hours ago
At this point in the ongoing conspiracy movie, Our hero begins to realize just what all the data centers are being built for. He remembers another movie that he watched a few years ago called "The Lives of Others".
Every-Swimmer458 | 9 hours ago
As Microsoft has become the #1 motivator of switching to Linux, so this will be the #1 motivator to switching to cash and ditching banks.