--- title: "Federal Agents Are Secretly Monitoring Americans’ Financial Transactions So Cops Can Arrest People They Find Suspicious" description: "Secretive \"predictive policing\" units at the US Border Patrol are analyzing American's financial activity to single out people to pull over." date: "2026-09-12" modified: "2026-09-12" authors: - name: "Frank Landymore" job_title: "Contributing Writer" link: "https://futurism.com/authors/flandymore.md" url: "https://futurism.com/future-society/federal-agents-monitoring-financial-transactions" categories: - "Future Society" - "Privacy" --- # Federal Agents Are Secretly Monitoring Americans’ Financial Transactions So Cops Can Arrest People They Find Suspicious ![Police car sirens on a road at night.]() *Shutterstock* The surveillance state is trying out a new tactic: pocket watching. *404 Media* [reports]() on how secretive "predictive policing" units in the US Border Patrol are analyzing Americans' financial activity and using it as a pretext to pull them over — even if they're not suspected of a specific crime. Predictive policing, the practice of [identifying possible criminal activity]() by analyzing broader patterns in absence of direct evidence, is highly controversial. Delving into individual citizens' financial data represents a significant escalation of these tactics. According to the investigation, the Border Patrol units in question are called Predictive Intelligence Targeting Teams (PITT). Rather than conducting stops themselves, PITT units feed their findings to local law enforcement. This was the case with a man driving across Montana, who was apprehended by local police after they received a tip-off from a PITT unit that analyzed his financial data. The man, Kyle William Olson, was stopped under the completely unrelated pretense, however, of an obstructed license plate. He was charged with a DUI and an intent to distribute narcotics. Olson had cannabis products like edibles in his car, which he got from a licensed cannabis farm in California where he worked, he told *404*. A memorandum of investigation document that Olson was provided and shared with *404* outlines how Border Patrol agent Matthew Phelps, who identifies himself as assigned to a PITT team in neighboring Spokane, Washington, observed "information contained within law enforcement-sensitive systems suggesting financial activity patterns commonly associated with illicit narcotics activity" when looking into Olson. Experts criticized how PITT is disguising the dubious predictive techniques it's using to apprehend Americans. "The bottom line is genuine probable cause cannot be synthetically generated," Jake Laperruque, deputy director of the Security and Surveillance Project at the Center For Democracy and Technology, told *404*. Border Patrol, he added, is "using parallel construction to cloak the reason behind its car stops in secrecy." "If we can't meaningfully review and evaluate these systems, we can't trust them," Laperruque said. It remains unclear what mechanisms Border Patrol is using to keep tabs on Americans' financial activity. In a statement to *404*, the agency said it "uses intelligence-informed analysis and planning to support national security operations, allocate resources, and help identify potential threats and bad actors to public safety," but insisted it would not discuss its specific methods, sources of information, and other details, for "operational security reasons." **More on privacy:** [*Surveillance-Happy Police In Shambles After Trump Tariffs Makes Drones Absurdly Expensive*]() ## Author At Futurism, my work has often centered on bringing a sense of clarity and insight to complex topics ranging from the regulation of emerging technologies to the esoteric ideologies of Silicon Valley executives, while striving not to lose the poetic sense of awe inspired by often-obscure fields like astrophysics and quantum computing. I broke the story of CNET using AI to produce articles that turned out to be riddled with factual errors and plagiarism — a dam-breaking inflection point, as I've reported, that's inspired copycats and endless discourse while beguiling stakeholders ranging from tech giants to purveyors of spam around the web. My work at Futurism has been cited by publications including CBS News, the Los Angeles Times, Vice, Gizmodo, Engadget, the Verge, and Vanity Fair. I grew up in locales ranging from India to China, and now live in the exotic suburbs of Virginia. In my free time, I'm an avid reader of weird sci-fi literature, an aficionado of East Asian cinema, and, regrettably, a relapsed gamer. Allegedly, I’m working on a debut novel, currently untitled. ### Author social links [Bluesky]()