MARY LOUISE KELLY, HOST:
A traffic stop can seem pretty straightforward. Police spot, say, a broken taillight or a driver speeding, so they pull the car over. But what if the stop isn't really about a traffic violation? Investigative journalist Joseph Cox has a new report for the tech news outlet 404 Media - a report on how law enforcement may be pulling people over based, at least in part, on their financial activity, activity that is shared with local police by Border Patrol. Joseph Cox, welcome.
JOSEPH COX: Thank you so much for having me.
KELLY: Your story begins with a man named Kyle Olson, who was driving, who gets pulled over in Montana. What happened?
COX: The officer goes up to Olson's window and says, hey, it's just that I saw your license plate was a little bit obstructed. The law enforcement officer does search Olson's vehicle and does find - they say - cannabis, marijuana and some edibles, as well. But that obstructed license plate was not really the actual reason for the stop.
KELLY: What was the actual reason?
COX: Olson provided us with a DHS document, and it shows that somebody in Border Patrol actually provided a tipoff to the local Montana law enforcement. This Border Patrol official had analyzed Olson's financial activity and previous criminal history and had determined this seems like an interesting person to pull over. At that point in time, Olson was not suspected of any specific crime. It was more based on this analysis of Olson's financial activity. It seemed worth sending this intelligence over to the local police who would then pull him over.
KELLY: Does CPB obtain a warrant to get this data?
COX: The agency declined to answer that question. Based on the available information, it seems unlikely that they're getting a warrant, because that is sort of the entire point of this predictive policing program. These people aren't suspected of a specific crime. They haven't been alleged to have done anything in particular. It is more gathering and sorting through intelligence.
KELLY: You quote in your article a CPB spokesperson who said these efforts are conducted consistent with applicable law, policy, privacy protections and oversight requirements. You are describing this as predictive policing.
COX: Yeah. So predictive policing is a highly controversial practice. And the idea is that they can pull in all sorts of data and then use that to make predictions of, well, is this area going to face more crime? And that's sort of on the lower end of the, you know, controversy spectrum, right up to, do we think this specific person may have committed a crime, even though we don't suspect they have committed a specific crime? And of course, this is controversial because typically the American justice system works with probable cause, search warrants and going through the legal process that way.
KELLY: So there will be people listening and thinking, hey, what's the problem? It worked. The predictive policing helped local law enforcement catch somebody, somebody they then charged with DUI and went on to charge with possession. What do you say to that?
COX: Yeah. I think that's an absolutely fair criticism. I would say that Olson is not the only person who has been swept up in the sort of predictive policing program from Border Patrol. There was an earlier case of someone in Texas that The Associated Press touched on, who was entirely innocent. They hadn't done anything. Their car was, you know, aggressively searched by law enforcement. They said they were still targeted because of the predictive policing model, but they hadn't actually done anything wrong.
KELLY: Joseph Cox, investigative reporter with 404 Media, thank you.
COX: Thank you so much. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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