The Pasco Sheriff's Office keeps a secret list of kids it thinks could "fall into a life of crime" based on factors like whether they've been abused or gotten a D or an F in school, according to the agency's internal intelligence manual.
The Sheriff's Office assembles the list by combining the rosters for most middle and high schools in the county with records so sensitive, they're protected by state and federal law.
School district data shows which children are struggling academically, miss too many classes or are sent to the office for discipline. Records from the state Department of Children and Families flag kids who have witnessed household violence or experienced it themselves.
According to the manual, any one of those factors makes a child more likely to become a criminal.
Four hundred and twenty kids are on the list, the Sheriff's Office said.
The process largely plays out in secret. The Sheriff's Office doesn't tell the kids or their parents about the designation. In an interview, schools superintendent Kurt Browning said he was unaware the Sheriff's Office was using school data to identify kids who might become criminals. So were the principals of two high schools.
The Department of Children and Families didn't answer when asked if it knew its data was being fed into such a system.
In a series of written statements, the Sheriff's Office said the list is used only to help the deputies assigned to middle and high schools offer "mentorship" and "resources" to students.
Asked for specifics, it pointed to one program where school resource officers take children fishing and another where they give clothes to kids in need.
Ten experts in law enforcement and student privacy questioned the justification for combing through thousands of students' education and child-welfare records.
They called the program highly unusual. Many said it was a clear misuse of children's confidential information that stretched the limits of the law.
The Sheriff's Office said its data sharing practices with the school district date back 20 years and are crucial to keeping campuses safe.
It added that only a juvenile intelligence analyst and the school resource officers have access to the list and the underlying data.
The agency also objected to the characterization of the list as potential future criminals, saying it was also designed to identify students at risk for victimization, truancy, self-harm and substance abuse.
But the intelligence manual — an 82-page document that school resource officers and other deputies are required to read — doesn't mention those other risks. Instead, in five separate places, it describes efforts to pinpoint kids who are likely to become criminals.
The office could not provide any documents instructing school resource officers to interpret the list another way.
When a reporter described the effort to Browning, he said he did not find it concerning.
"We have an agreement with the Sheriff's Office," the superintendent said. "The agreement requires them to use (the data) for official law enforcement purposes. I have to assume that's exactly what they are using it for."
Later, in a written statement, he added: "If there is any need to revisit any aspect of our relationship, we will do so in a thoughtful manner with the goal of keeping our students and staff safe."
Two members of the Pasco School Board, Megan Harding and Alison Crumbley, described the district's relationship with the Sheriff's Office as strong and referenced safeguards to protect students' privacy. The agreement between the two institutions says the Sheriff's Office must keep the records confidential and use them in legal ways.
The three other School Board members did not return calls or declined to comment.
The fuck?
