(02/27/2026) A bill advancing through the Florida Legislature would give the state something no state in the country has: its own spy unit — with the power to target people based on their views.

HB 945, sponsored by Rep. Danny Alvarez (R-Riverview), would create a state-level counterintelligence and counterterrorism unit inside the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Its stated mission: to “detect, identify, neutralize, and exploit adversary intelligence entities, international and domestic terrorists, insider threats, corporate threats, and other foreign adversaries.”

That language might sound reasonable — until you read who qualifies as a target. The bill defines “adversary intelligence entities” to include any “person whose demonstrated actions, views, or opinions are a threat or are inimical to the interests of this state.” Not criminal conduct. Not terrorist activity. Views. Opinions.

The proposed unit would analyze “patterns of life,” execute arrests, and deploy “counterintelligence and counterterrorism tradecraft” — language drawn from the world of espionage, not domestic law enforcement. There is no specific language in the bill protecting U.S. citizens from being targeted. And while Alvarez insists a criminal predicate would be required before any investigation, as Reason magazine reported, the bill itself imposes no such condition.

The bill has already cleared three House committees and has one more stop — the State Affairs Committee — before the House floor. A Senate companion, SB 1712, sponsored by Sen. Jonathan Martin (R-Fort Myers), is also advancing. The legislative session ends March 13.

The NYPD Model — and What Happened to It

As the Florida Phoenix reported, Alvarez has cited the counterterrorism unit created by the New York Police Department after 9/11 as his model. What he did not mention is how that program ended. The NYPD’s Demographics Unit, as it became known, conducted mass surveillance of Muslim communities across New York and New Jersey — infiltrating mosques, monitoring student groups, and mapping Muslim-owned businesses and restaurants. As The Intercept reported, the program drew widespread condemnation and was ultimately shut down after lawsuits and public outcry over its systematic targeting of an entire religious community. That is the model Florida lawmakers want to replicate.

Bipartisan Opposition — and a Familiar Excuse

The bill drew bipartisan pushback at its most recent committee hearing. Rep. Michele Rayner (D-St. Petersburg) invoked COINTELPRO, the FBI’s notorious program that targeted civil rights leaders and political dissidents in the 1960s and ’70s. “I don’t know if there’s any iteration of this bill that I could support,” she said, “because quite frankly that means any of us in this room could be a target.” Republican Rep. Alex Andrade (R-Pensacola) also voted no, citing “grave concerns about the abuse of a bill like this” given its vague language.

The ACLU of Florida’s Abdelilah Skhir told the committee: “We have grave concerns that the current provisions of HB 945 could easily be used to silence dissenting voices under the guise of security.” Bobby Block, executive director of the First Amendment Foundation of Florida, pointed to the bill’s targeting of views deemed “inimical” to Florida: “What does that mean? If I’m not a white Christian nationalist, does that mean my views are inimical?”

Alvarez’s response followed a pattern that has become familiar this session: trust me, I’ll fix it later. “People are looking for boogeymen here,” he told the committee. “You just have to trust me to get to the next committee.” He promised an amendment addressing First Amendment concerns — but as The Intercept reported, he didn’t even recognize the First Amendment problems until six weeks after he filed the bill.

An Israeli Spyware Company Is Already Watching

The proposed unit has already attracted interest from the surveillance industry. According to reporting by the Florida Trident, the Israeli spyware company Cellebrite — known for its phone-hacking technology — is tracking the bill’s progress through a registered lobbyist. Cellebrite is the sole corporate interest listed on the lobbyist disclosure form associated with HB 945. The company has a troubling record: Amnesty International documented Serbian authorities using its products to target journalists and environmental activists, and the company previously sold its technology to the Maduro regime in Venezuela despite American sanctions. The Florida Trident also reported that Cellebrite was part of Governor DeSantis’s itinerary during a 2019 business development visit to Israel.

A Broader Pattern

HB 945 is advancing alongside HB 1471 and its Senate companion SB 1632, which would give the state the power to designate organizations as domestic terrorists. If both sets of bills become law, Florida would have a system to label organizations, a surveillance unit to track them, and — under HB 1473 — a public records exemption to keep the process hidden from the public.

CAIR-Florida’s Omar Saleh told The Intercept he believes HB 945 is part of the broader effort to codify the governor’s executive order designating CAIR a terrorist organization — an order CAIR is challenging in federal court as unconstitutional. “If it’s anything like what we’ve seen, which we’re pretty sure it is, it’s going to be one particular group that is going to be surveilled,” Saleh said. “They are not going to go into churches or synagogues or any other places of worship — they’re going to focus on mosques.”

He may be right about who gets targeted first. But a state spy unit empowered to go after anyone whose “views or opinions” are deemed threatening will not stay aimed in one direction. It never does.