A Secretive DHS ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit is Analyzing Americans’ Financial Habits and Pulling Them Over

Read the original at 404 Media ↗
Cite

Cox, J. (2026, September 8). A Secretive DHS ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit is Analyzing Americans’ Financial Habits and Pulling Them Over. 404 Media. https://www.404media.co/a-secretive-dhs-predictive-policing-unit-is-analyzing-americans-financial-habits-and-pulling-them-over/

Dated when The Aporia collected the article, usually within hours of publication. Check the original for its exact date and byline.

404 Media · collected 2026-09-08 · by Joseph Cox

Quick Summary

Border Patrol has secretive "predictive policing" units that analyze Americans' financial activity and other data to identify potential targets for searches, without specific suspicion of a crime. These units, whose names were revealed by 404 Media, feed their intelligence to local police who then pull people over for investigation. The analysis is based on unspecified criteria and does not appear to rely on individual warrants or probable cause. Local police are using this information to stop drivers who have not committed any known crimes.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-09, using this article's own text rather than the other coverage of the same event (that is the story summary below).

AI analysis runs on qwen2.5:14b, locally

Story summary

The Department of Homeland Security's (DHS) Predictive Intelligence Targeting Teams (PITT) are secretly analyzing Americans' financial habits and other data to identify potential targets for police stops. At least two PITT units have been identified, one in the Spokane Sector in Washington state and another in Laredo, Texas. According to 404 Media's investigation, these teams feed their intelligence to local authorities, who then stop drivers without probable cause, often under pretextual reasons such as an obstructed license plate. For example, a driver was pulled over in Montana after his financial activity was analyzed by a PITT and charged with a DUI. Critics argue that this use of mass surveillance and predictive policing is a recipe for tyranny, as it allows the government to target individuals without suspicion or probable cause.

Written for “DHS Predictive Policing Unit” on 2026-10-24, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

📰 DHS Predictive Policing Unit
Crime & Law · 1 article(s) covering the same event.

Compared with similar articles

This article reads leans left and hedges 33% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
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The Markup
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“Article A describes a discovery on California's border, while Article B discusses predictive policing units in Montana”
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⚖️ Leans left 🔴 26% hedged 10 of 39 📰 publisher trust 95
“Article A describes an incident in May 2025 where a woman's financial activity was searched, while Article B mentions a different case involving a man driving across Montana with no mention of the original event”
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“The articles describe two separate incidents involving different agencies (ICE and DHS/Border Patrol) with distinct activities (hiding identities of agents vs. analyzing financial habits for predictive policing)”
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⚖️ Leans strongly right further right than this 🔴 5% hedged 2 of 43 📰 publisher trust 95
“Article A discusses Flock's webinar on surveillance capabilities, while Article B reports on a separate predictive policing unit called PITT analyzing financial habits and pulling people over for no reason”
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⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 8% hedged 4 of 51 📰 publisher trust 67
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“Article A discusses bipartisan backlash against Flock Safety cameras, while Article B reveals a secretive DHS unit called PITT that analyzes financial activity and pulls people over without suspicion”
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⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 0% hedged 0 of 6 📰 publisher trust 95
“Article B describes a podcast discussing the secretive predictive policing units, whereas Article A is an investigative report revealing their existence and activities”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
3
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
33%
1 of 3 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
Leans left
of the writing, not the subject · beta estimate
Publisher signals
95/100
404 Media's corrections and hedging, across everything collected from it. Not a measure of accuracy.
Outlets on this story
1
Crime & Law
Same framing elsewhere
1
articles that frame the event the way this one does
Analyzed 2026-09-09 · source text last changed 2026-09-09 · how these are computed

How this is being covered How these are calculated →

Article leaning vs. publisher reliability
Source leaning vs. consistency

Publisher

404 Media · 155 article(s) · 0 correction(s) detected
No corrections detected for this publisher. That may mean careful reporting, or simply that nothing has been checked.

Who wrote this

Joseph Cox
25 article(s) here · 1 carrying a prediction
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🔮 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.
2026-09-08 · mixed framing · A Secretive DHS ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit is Analyzing Americans’ Financial Habits and Pulling Them Over
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Nothing else under this byline is closely related to this article, so these are simply their most recent.
All 25 articles by Joseph Cox →

Topics

404 Media Americans Border Patrol Border Patrol's DHS

Subjects

404 Media ORG · 2× Americans NORP · 2× DHS ORG · 2× Border Patrol ORG · 1× Border Patrol's ORG · 1×

Narrative

DHS A Secretive DHS ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit is Analyzing Americans’ Financial Habits and Pulling Them Over 404 Media is revealing the name of Border Patrol's predictive policing units, which analyze financial data and have local cops pull people over.
framing: mixed · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-09
🔮 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.
2026-09-09 · 404 Media
A Secretive DHS ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit is Analyzing Americans’ Financial Habits and Pulling Them Over · mixed framing

Claims (3 extracted, 1 hedged)

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. uncertain
Media → run → crime
DHS A Secretive DHS ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit is Analyzing Americans’ Financial Habits and Pulling Them Over 404 Media is revealing the name of Border Patrol's predictive policing units, which analyze financial data and have local cops pull people over. asserted
cops → analyze → people
The people are not suspected of any particular crime. asserted
people → suspect → crime
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