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Florida Legislature, FDLE steered $6M budget earmark and $16M in grants to Peregrine Technologies without competitive bidding

On May 15, 2026, the Florida House Justice Budget Conference Committee inserted a $6 million appropriation for a law-enforcement data-integration platform into state budget negotiations, wording that mirrored FDLE's own January 2026 budget request naming Peregrine Technologies directly. Peregrine's head of business development, Matthew Melton, is married to Rep. Fiona McFarland, a member of the conference committee that added the funding, and the company's lobbying firm donated $225,000 to Republican leadership PACs in the months before. FDLE's State Board of Immigration Enforcement separately granted more than $16 million from a $250 million immigration-enforcement trust fund to over two dozen local agencies earmarked to buy the same Peregrine software.

Jurisdiction
Florida
Location
Tallahassee, Florida

Abuses documented

Actors

On May 15, 2026, Florida House Justice Budget Conference Committee documents showed a new $6 million entry for a law-enforcement data-integration platform, added during closed-door budget negotiations. The language lacked detail but mirrored a $6 million legislative budget request FDLE had submitted in January 2026 to "continue the use of Peregrine for the state of Florida law enforcement partners," and Peregrine Technologies, a San Francisco AI surveillance firm with lobbying ties to Gov. Ron DeSantis, had separately secured a non-binding agreement with FDLE two months earlier to build a similar platform. Peregrine's head of business development, Matthew Melton, is married to state Rep. Fiona McFarland, a member of the conference committee that inserted the funding; McFarland said she was unaware of the addition until reading about it in a news report. Separately, FDLE's State Board of Immigration Enforcement — composed of DeSantis and three cabinet officials — has granted more than $16 million from a $250 million immigration-enforcement trust fund to more than two dozen local agencies, including the Osceola and Orange county sheriff's offices, earmarked specifically to purchase Peregrine's software, which aggregates court records, arrest data, body-camera footage and license-plate images.

Peregrine's lobbying firm, Capital City Consulting, received $225,000 in political donations from the company between late 2025 and January 2026, distributed to Republican leadership and DeSantis-aligned political committees. FDLE has not responded to questions about why Peregrine was selected or whether any of the contracts went through competitive bidding, and watchdog group Integrity Florida has flagged "obvious conflicts of interest" in the process.

Updates

2026-06-29 — DeSantis signed FY2026-27 budget without vetoing the Peregrine line [4, 5]

Gov. Ron DeSantis signed Florida's $117.6 billion FY2026-27 budget on June 29, 2026, issuing nearly $810 million in line-item vetoes but leaving the $6 million Peregrine appropriation intact.

Why we recorded this

Competitive procurement exists to stop public officials from steering taxpayer money to politically connected companies rather than the best-qualified bidder. Florida's House budget conferees inserted a $6 million appropriation for Peregrine Technologies — a firm whose local business-development lead is married to a member of that conference committee — without a documented competitive process, while FDLE separately funneled over $16 million in grants earmarked for the same vendor through an immigration-enforcement trust fund. Directing public contracts to insiders through opaque budget language, and routing that money through funding streams built for immigration enforcement, undermines fair procurement and public accountability.

Sources

  1. Florida House budget includes $6 million for company of budget negotiator's husband — Florida Trident investigative accessed July 7, 2026
  2. Florida enters new era of AI policing, politically connected firm gets contracts — Orlando Sentinel investigative accessed July 7, 2026
  3. State Board of Immigration Enforcement — FY25-26 Immigration Grant Program (IGP) — Florida Department of Law Enforcement primary accessed July 7, 2026
  4. Governor Ron DeSantis Signs Florida Fiscal Year 2026-2027 Budget, Capping Eight Years of Conservative Leadership and Historic Results — Executive Office of the Governor (Florida) primary accessed July 7, 2026
  5. What survived: The budget projects Ron DeSantis did NOT veto tell as much of a story as those he did — Florida Politics investigative accessed July 7, 2026

See also