{"id":6536,"date":"2026-07-05T12:34:02","date_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:34:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=6536"},"modified":"2026-07-05T12:34:02","modified_gmt":"2026-07-05T12:34:02","slug":"florida-enters-new-era-of-ai-policing-politically-connected-firm-gets-contracts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=6536","title":{"rendered":"Florida enters new era of AI policing, politically connected firm gets contracts"},"content":{"rendered":"
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TALLAHASSEE \u2014 Florida is expanding the role of artificial intelligence to help local police track down immigrants, and one well-connected technology firm is getting most of that business from the Republican-run state.<\/p>\n

Read more Folarin Balogun urges US to focus on beating Belgium despite red card he calls unjust<\/a><\/p>\n

Peregrine Technologies of San Francisco, whose lobbyists have close ties to Gov. Ron DeSantis, has an agreement with the Florida Department of Law Enforcement to provide a software platform that pulls from a vast array of surveillance and law enforcement data sources and integrates them into one easy-to-use app. Language quietly slipped into the state budget appears to steer at least $6 million in state funds toward the company\u2019s technology.<\/p>\n

The FDLE\u2019s board of immigration enforcement also has granted millions of dollars to more than two dozen Florida agencies, including the Orange and Osceola county sheriff\u2019s offices, specifically to buy Peregrine software. That will allow the agencies to tap into that system that can access court reports, arrest records, police interviews, body cam footage, license plate images and other records.<\/p>\n

Those deals raise questions about why so many police agencies are purchasing technology from the same company \u2014 when others besides Peregrine offer similar software \u2014 and fears among civil rights advocates about privacy violations and the misuse of public information.<\/p>\n

There are \u201cobviously conflicts of interest at play in the legislative process,\u201d said Ben Wilcox, co-founder and research director of Integrity Florida, a nonprofit, nonpartisan government watchdog and research institute, of the Peregrine deal. But, he added, \u201cthe larger concern is the Big Brother\u201d element.<\/p>\n

\u201cAre we reaching the point where all of us are under surveillance by our government? What does that mean for being a citizen of the US?\u201d Wilcox asked. \u201cDo we want that kind of surveillance?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Such technology needs robust safeguards, and the reasons why a particular company is tapped should be made public, said Rachel Levinson-Waldman, director of the Brennan Center for Justice Liberty and National Security Program.<\/p>\n

FDLE has not responded to questions about why Peregrine was selected or whether it was picked through a competitive bidding process.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cA powerful AI tool like Peregrine can be used to supercharge immigration enforcement, build dossiers on citizens exercising their constitutionally protected rights to speak and assemble, and facilitate criminal investigations of people charged with seeking reproductive health care or having documents at odds with their gender identity,\u201d Levinson-Waldman said. \u201cThese capabilities are too powerful and too risky to be contracted for in secret.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peregrine CEO and co-founder Nick Noone told Morningstar, a global investment research and data firm, that \u201cprotection of privacy and civil liberties has been at the core of the product since day one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Before starting Peregrine, Noone was an executive at Palantir, an AI company that provides similar data integration platforms for federal intelligence agencies, including the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeregrine is not a surveillance platform and does not collect data,\u201d said Austin Finan, a company spokesman, in an email to the Orlando Sentinel. \u201cInstead, it unifies existing agency data so authorized personnel can securely access and understand critical information across their systems when it matters most.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Peregrine currently works with more than 400 cities and counties across North America, he said.<\/p>\n

Peregrine made quick inroads into Florida\u2019s political machinery in the past two years. The firm hired Tallahassee lobbyists Capital City Consulting in late 2024, and then between February of 2025 and January of 2026 it donated $225,000 to a political committee controlled by Ron LaFace, one of Capital City\u2019s owners, who has played a key role in monitoring legislation on behalf of DeSantis.<\/p>\n

The PAC distributed donations to Republican candidates and conservative political committees, including $50,000 to a DeSantis-controlled PAC, $150,000 to outgoing Senate President Ben Albritton, R-Wauchula, $72,600 to incoming president Jim Boyd, R-Bradenton, $57,500 to Senate appropriations chair Ed Hooper, R-Palm Harbor and $50,000 to CFO Blaise Ingoglia.<\/p>\n

Read more Disney, Bloomberg open wallets as Orange County mayoral hopefuls rake in cash<\/a><\/p>\n

The other owner of Capital City Consulting, Nick Iarossi, served as co-chair of inaugural celebrations for DeSantis after his election in 2018 and reelection in 2022 and a national finance co-chair for his failed presidential campaign in 2024.<\/p>\n

Peregrine\u2019s head of business development and partnerships, Matthew Melton, is married to Rep. Fiona McFarland, R-Sarasota, a key member of the Florida House budget negotiating team.<\/p>\n

McFarland and Iarossi did not return calls seeking comment.<\/p>\n

Peregrine secured a non-binding agreement with FDLE and the Florida Department of Corrections in April to develop a statewide information-sharing platform that would use AI to help agencies in \u201csolving crimes and fighting terrorism.\u201dTwo months later, the Legislature slipped language into the state budget during the last week of negotiations to provide $6 million to hire a technology company, through a competitive bidding process, to develop a similar platform.<\/p>\n

The budget language did not mention Peregrine by name, but its wording mirrors that used by FDLE in its April agreement with the company, and by the agency in its request for $6 million to the Legislature in January. In that request, it said the money was \u201cto continue the use of Peregrine for the state of Florida law enforcement partners.\u201d<\/p>\n

The company\u2019s influence and reach among local law enforcement spread quickly. More than two dozen agencies chose Peregrine to provide the AI software program, from among the dozens of potential companies that offer similar services.<\/p>\n

The state\u2019s Immigration and Enforcement Board, made up of DeSantis, Attorney General James Uthmeier, CFO Blaise Ingoglia and Agricultural Commissioner Wilton Simpson, granted more than $16 million to those agencies to buy Peregrine\u2019s software.<\/p>\n

Among the biggest grant recipients are the Osceola County Sheriff\u2019s Office at $1.8 million, Miami-Dade at $1.6 million, Brevard County at $1.4 million, Escambia County at $1.1 million, and Sarasota County and Lee County at $1 million each. The Orange County Sheriff\u2019s Office got $504,000 for a two-year contract with Peregrine.<\/p>\n

The money comes from a $250 million trust fund set up by the Legislature to help cover the expenses incurred by law enforcement agencies working to meet a new state mandate to assist the federal government in rounding up and deporting immigrants.<\/p>\n

Collecting and sharing data among law enforcement agencies is not new, said Michelle Guido, spokeswoman for the Orange sheriff\u2019s office. \u201cIt\u2019s just our opinion that Peregrine does it better.\u201d<\/p>\n

Guido did not explain who recommended Peregrine or whether company representatives talked to department officials.<\/p>\n

The software will help consolidate their computer-aided dispatch, records management system, analytics and operational information into a single platform, Guido said.<\/p>\n

The software is not meant to replace detective work, she said, but help sort through a large amount of data from various sources quickly and establish leads that are then investigated by human detectives, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s for everything we do, not specifically for immigration enforcement,\u201d Guido said.<\/p>\n

Read more Orlando Sentinel 150: After ups and downs, can Downtown Orlando rise again?<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A California company has a $6 million agreement with Florida for an AI software platform for law enforcement, and local police agencies are using state grants to buy the firm’s software.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":6535,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13,27],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6536","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-politics"],"yoast_head":"\nFlorida enters new era of AI policing, politically connected firm gets contracts - Orlando Relocation Report<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/orlandorelocationreport.com\/?p=6536\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Florida enters new era of AI policing, politically connected firm gets contracts - 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