Podcast: DHS’ Secretive ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit Pulling People Over

Read the original at 404 Media ↗
Cite

Cox, J. (2026, September 10). Podcast: DHS’ Secretive ‘Predictive Policing’ Unit Pulling People Over. 404 Media. https://www.404media.co/podcast-dhs-secretive-predictive-policing-unit-pulling-people-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 2026-09-10 · by Joseph Cox

Quick Summary

The article reports on a podcast episode discussing the "predictive policing" unit within DHS, which analyzes financial data to identify individuals and have them pulled over by local police. The key figure mentioned is Joseph, who shares his story about this issue. The podcast can be listened to through various platforms such as Apple Podcasts or Spotify. The article does not provide specific details about the predictive policing unit's activities beyond what is discussed in the podcast.
Written locally by qwen2.5:14b on 2026-09-10, 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 US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has a secret unit called "predictive policing" that is analyzing Americans' financial data, which is then used by local police officers to pull people over for unknown reasons. The existence and activities of this unit have not been publicly disclosed, making it a secretive operation. This information comes from a podcast episode where the host, Joseph Cox, discusses his story about DHS's predictive policing units.

Written for “DHS Predictive Policing Controversy” on 2026-10-25, grounded in this article and the 0 other(s) covering the same event.

Story

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

Compared with similar articles

This article reads unscored and hedges 0% of its claims. Each row says how that neighbour differs.
The Guardian
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 12% hedged 4 of 33 📰 publisher trust 66
“Article B mentions 'predictive policing units' and 'AI-camera systems', while Article A focuses on Flock Safety cameras and a bipartisan backlash against them”
404 Media
⚖️ Leans left 🔴 33% hedged 1 of 3 📰 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”
The Free Press
⚖️ leaning not scored 🔴 6% hedged 2 of 31 📰 publisher trust 96
“Article A mentions an experiment with guaranteed basic income for ex-cons in Florida, while Article B does not mention this topic at all and discusses a different issue related to DHS' predictive policing unit”
How this article was measured signals, leaning charts, publisher record, byline, topics and claims

Signals How these are calculated →

Claims extracted
6
sentences that state something as happening or true
Uncertain
0%
0 of 6 hedged ("reportedly", "may", "according to")
Leaning
not political
takes no side on a contested political question
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 2026-09-10 · 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 · 158 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 · 0 carrying a prediction
🔮 A letter written by Telegram, and providing a specific user’s phone number, user ID, and IP address, reads: Dear Sir or Madam, For this particular case, the following information was available: User #7149269705 : +201155664529 [Mahmoud Almohtadi] IP 184.186.72.239, 8 Oct 2025 2:08:12 We hope this information will be helpful in your investigation. Kind regards, The Telegram Team The letter says Telegram provided the data “voluntarily” and that by providing it, Telegram is “not conceding that we are subject to U.S. jurisdiction for this or any other request or any purpose.”
🔮 This is pretty normal in the advertising world, but I seriously doubt that when most of ChatGPT’s many, many users see an ad, they realize that might be because someone, somewhere, uploaded their phone number into OpenAI’s systems.
2026-10-15 · assertive framing · ChatGPT Ads Target Your Phone Number, Email
🔮 Multiple Democrat, Republican, and Independent lawmakers have introduced new pieces of legislation that, if passed, would dramatically curb federal agencies’ access to Flock cameras, with the lawmakers referencing reporting by 404 Media in their explanations for why the legislation is needed.
🔮 Although any potential damage will be less if ShinyHunters doesn’t publish the data publicly, the theft happening at all still presents much of those same national security risks, with the data providing granular insight into how the FBI operates. “Since the very beginning we had made our decision that we would never publish this data.
🔮 What is different in this latest Copilot episode, and 404 Media’s reporting on contractors at other AI companies like OpenAI, is that the content humans are reviewing are prompts and uploads that chatbot users may assume are private, and that the contractors are not looking at this material to train the models to filter out offensive images or for some other safety concern.
🔮 And the ALPR Hostlist Management Audit report details changes made to alerts the agency may receive.
🔮 Georgia State University has rescinded a job offer given to a high profile activist who is currently fighting a case in which he allegedly wiped a security-focused Android phone before Customs and Border Protection (CBP) could search it.
🔮 The prompts these people review can include whole conversations between users and the chatbot, conversations that most of ChatGPT’s more than 900 million users probably don’t realize may be read by actual people.
🔮 Apparently over the cross of that source and interviewer relationship, Biden “asked if he could use our mailing list whenever he launched a new product,” according to a statement posted by Channel 5 to X on Monday.
🔮 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.
Also by Joseph Cox
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

Americans Apple Podcasts DHS Spotify YouTube

Subjects

YouTube ORG · 2× Americans NORP · 1× Apple Podcasts ORG · 1× DHS ORG · 1× Jason PERSON · 1× Joseph PERSON · 1× Spotify ORG · 1× Transistor PERSON · 1×

Narrative

We start this week with Joseph’s story about the secretive predictive policing units inside DHS that are analyzing Americans’ financial data and having local cops pull them over.
framing: assertive · carried by 1 article(s) · first seen 2026-09-10

Claims (6 extracted, 0 hedged)

We start this week with Joseph’s story about the secretive predictive policing units inside DHS that are analyzing Americans’ financial data and having local cops pull them over. asserted
cops → start → them
After the break, Jason tells us about the funky shirt designed to fool AI-camera systems. asserted
Jason → tell → systems
In the subscribers-only section, we talk all about our third anniversary events. asserted
we → talk → events
If you become a paid subscriber, check your inbox for an email from our podcast host Transistor for a link to the subscribers-only version! asserted
you → become → version
You can also add that subscribers feed to your podcast app of choice and never miss an episode that way. asserted
You → add → episode
The email should also contain the subscribers-only unlisted YouTube link for the extended video version too. asserted
email → contain → version
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