New security system mistakenly flags north Texas dad as sex offender

10-30-2014 Texas:

An unnerving coincidence for a Fort Worth dad who went to visit his child's school in Fort Worth. A new computerized security system alerted staff that he might be a sex offender.

A promotional video from Raptor Technologies shows how it's supposed to work. Parents entering schools have their id's scanned, usually a driver's license, and a printer spits out a pass.

But when Jose Jimenez turned over his Texas driver's license, he got a shocking response. "When they put it into the computer, they say he could not be there because he was a sex offender," said his neighbor, Maria Miranda, who acted as interpreter.

He's not a sex offender. But when the computer searched a nationwide database, it found a close match. A Jose Jimenez listed as an absconder on Arizona's list of registered sex offenders. The Fort Worth Jose Jimenez says he's never even been to Arizona.

The middle names are different, but the height and weight are similar. The CEO of Raptor said the mix-up is partly due to the fact that Arizona does not list dates of birth on the registry. The principal compared the photos, and let Jimenez into the school.

"The system did work," said Fort Worth ISD spokesman Clint Bond. "We got a potential alert. We checked it out. It proved to be false."

Jimenez told us he's not worried, because he knows he's not the person on the list. But he did file a police report, just to make sure his identity had not been stolen by a sex offender -- and to have something on the record should the issue come up again.

Reached by phone Wednesday afternoon, the CEO of Raptor Technologies said that although the system is new to Fort Worth, it is in 12,000 schools in 45 states. Jim Vesterman said Raptor has flagged 15,000 registered sex offenders trying to enter schools. ..Source.. by Delaney Bentley

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Sex Offender Detection System Headed To Woburn Schools

Given registered sex offenders (RSO) must pick up their own children, perfectly legal. And, there hasn't been a single reported school crime by a RSO accessing a school system, in history. This system is a complete waste of money and resources.

6-12-15 Massachusetts:

The Raptor System scans government I.D.s in hopes of keeping potentially harmful individuals out of schools.

This September, a security system designed to keep undesirables away from children shall be installed at some Woburn elementary schools, according to a report from the Daily Times Chronicle.

The school board voted in an almost $18,000 expenditure for the Raptor System, a web-based program in which a scan of any form of government identification reveals if the individual is a registered sex offender in any of the 50 states, says DTC.

“The Raptor System is a way of identifying people who visit our schools,” said School Committee Chairman Dr. John Wells, according to DTC. “[Visitors] will provide a driver’s license, and if there’s any issues with them, the principals will work to see if they’re [allowed to be on school grounds].”

Other officials who spoke to DTC claimed the Raptor’s initial cost, as well as the $5,000 - $6,000 annual service and software fees, won’t impact the school’s budget.

Though it is primarily used to detect sex offenders, the Raptor System can also point out individuals with restraining orders against them, custody issues, suspended or expelled students, or those accused of being gang members. It can even be used to monitor students and employees, so administration knows when they arrive on campus, how long they’re there, and when they leave on a day-to-day basis.

Much more detail in the original story here. ..Source.. by Barry Thompson

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School pilot program will check visitors’ sex offender status

Would love to see statistics on, who is identified and their backgrounds, that systems like this identify. If anyone has such please forward.

9-12-2014 Maryland:

High-tech system allows on-site background checks at campuses

Charles County Public Schools will pilot a new security system in the coming weeks that will allow officials to perform instantaneous but abridged background checks on visitors to schools and the central office building.

The school system has taken advantage of a free 60-day trial with IdentAKid, the contractor from which officials purchased the current check-in system.

Each school is equipped with an electronic kiosk in the front office where a guest will provide a name and purpose for visiting the school, and receive a printed paper badge.

In roughly two weeks, visitors to the Jesse L. Starkey Administration Building, Dr. Thomas L. Higdon Elementary School, Milton M. Somers Middle School and Thomas Stone High School, will need to supply their ID, which staff will scan.

The system will perform a check of the sex offender registry.

Parents of children at the affected schools will be notified of the change by phone and email blasts, with a fact sheet included on how to use the new sign-in system.

“The security management system will provide an additional level of security,” said Sylvia Lawson, assistant superintendent of school administration, at the board of education meeting Tuesday. “Expansion of program to all schools is a component of future planning involving school security.”

The school system purchased the IdentAKid kiosks in 2005, to the tune of $3,500 per school for the cost of the badge printer.

Officials do not maintain a contract with IdentAKid, though they would pay an annual fee for the new service should they choose to continue after the trial period.

The only recurring cost is for the badge paper, which each school funds separately.

“The computers used for the system are ones that were taken out of schools when replaced with newer ones,” school spokeswoman Katie O’Malley-Simpson wrote in an email. “Older computers with little memory … work well with only the sign-in system on them. There was no additional cost and there has been no update to the software that would result in a cost.”

Two other companies, ScholarChip and Raptor Visitor Management Software, also placed bids for the security system, said Lawson during her presentation to the school board.

O’Malley-Simpson declined to disclose the amount of the bids of the three companies, citing ongoing negotiations.

The school system conducts a federal background check on all its regular employees.

The new security measure will target visitors, volunteers, contracted workers and other temporary employees. ..Source.. by Jeremy Bauer-Wolf Staff writer

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Iowa City schools plan to start visitor ID checks

11-29-2013 Iowa:

Some people say it could be a barrier to minority families.

Iowa City schools soon will begin using a new visitor identification system that’s been criticized as a possible barrier to school access by minority parents.

The Iowa City school district has spent about $600 at each school to install the Raptor visitor management system.

District chief operating officer David Dude said the system will be activated in all district schools on Jan. 6, when students return from winter break.

The schools will require visitors to show one of several forms of ID at front offices on their first visits to schools. Office personnel will scan the IDs, saving the photos, birth dates and names that appear on them, and check the data against sex offender databases. The check “happens instantly, almost,” Dude said.

If someone’s name does show up on a list of sex offenders, Dude said, the person wouldn’t necessarily be barred. Dude said rules for parents on sex offender lists may vary, and some school administrators may require the visitors to be escorted.

Office personnel will give visitors ID badge stickers to wear and ask visitors to turn them in when they leave.

Some people criticized the system at a recent school board meeting, saying they were concerned the district list of acceptable forms of identification is limited and could raise a barrier to minority families.

Mazahir Salih, of the Center for Work Justice of Eastern Iowa, said it’s already difficult for some minority families to participate in their kids’ educations.

“This is really another barrier,” Salih said.

The list of acceptable IDs includes state driver’s licenses, Mexican consulate cards, licenses for concealed handguns, residency cards, card-style U.S. passports, and some military ID cards.

Dude said people without listed ID can request a district-issued ID at the central office. An applicant should bring some evidence of his or her identity, including an ID form not on the list or a letter from an employer. ..Source.. by DesMoine Register

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Va. Beach schools abandon visitor screening system

Snake oil, one dollar a bottle, at very least it will make you feel safe. Checking for sex offenders revealed ONE trying to get into a school -TO DELIVER a PIZZA-, Yup it is well worth spending $120,000+, unfortunately they do not count all those sex offenders who ran away from the school when they learned about this snake oil system. Yup, there are good snake oil salesmen in the world preying on fears. And, the kids didn't get their pizza either...

9-12-2011 Virginia:

Budget restraints have forced school division officials to scrap a plan to install security software that would have screened school visitors divisionwide against a national database of registered sex offenders.

The system was tested at three school buildings in the spring, winning praise from some parents and drawing the ire of others who argued the background checks were intrusive and unnecessary.

"We tried it out, and although it was successful and fairly well received, we were not in a position to expand it to all our schools," said Melissa McQuarrie, director of community relations. "It just wasn't in the budget for us."

Installing and running the Raptor Technologies security system - which scans visitor IDs and then alerts school officials if the person appears on a national list of offenders - would have cost the division $120,000 the first year and $36,288 each year after that.

McQuarrie said she would like the school system to revisit the idea.

"I think it's a valuable service," she said.

A growing number of schools have hired private companies to run sophisticated background checks on visitors in an effort to ferret out sex offenders. In Virginia, sex offenders are by law generally barred from entering schools.

Opponents have argued that such checks do little to deter crime.

"It's worth asking how often someone has actually accessed a school to commit a crime against a child," said Jim Harper of the libertarian Cato Institute. "I'm guessing the answer is, not very often."

The Raptor system flagged one registered sex offender during its four months in operation at three Beach schools this spring, McQuarrie said.

A pizza delivery man with a record of sexual misconduct was ordered to leave Larkspur Middle School when he attempted to drop off pizzas for a classroom function. The man was not charged, school officials said.

A similar security system was installed at all Chesapeake public school buildings at the start of last school year. To date, the system hasn't flagged any sex offenders, division spokesman Tom Cupitt said. But that doesn't mean the system hasn't deterred potential predators from stepping into a school building, he said.

"It's another layer of security," Cupitt said. "And it's very popular with parents." ..Source.. by Mike Hixenbaugh

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MI- School security methods go hi-tech, but at what cost to our personal freedom?

The costs of this Raptor system is astronomical (see end of this article) and that Texas school system is involved in a lawsuit over this system.

12-6-2008 Michigan:

"May I have your driver's license please?" asked Mrs. Hamp, the kindly secretary behind the desk at Lemon Bay High School In Englewood, Florida, where I recently had a meeting scheduled with teachers.

I handed it over and watched with interest as she ran it through a small machine. She studied her computer screen while I waited, and shortly a visitor's pass complete with date, time, destination, and my name and photo emerged from a tiny printer. I was instructed to peel off the label and stick it to my shirt.

"Just what comes up on the screen when you do that?" I asked.

"Every single bit of your personal information," she joked.

At least, I think she was joking.

It's called Raptorware, a computerized background check system developed by a Houston firm called Raptor Systems.

Raptorware scans information encoded in the magnetic strip on driver's licenses, sends each visitor's full name, birth date, license number and photo over the Internet, and then checks the information against Raptor's national database of registered sex offenders.

If I had been a registered sex offender, Mrs. Hamp would have known immediately. Authorities would have been secretly alerted and dispatched to the school. Mrs. Hamp would continue to chat nonchalantly without letting on that police were on their way.

It's a slick system, fast, efficient and (hopefully) accurate, and according to the Raptorware website it identified 1,100 offenders on its campuses last year. They claim it has also been credited for numerous arrests of absconded sex offenders nationwide.

No one can fault a school district for going the extra mile to keep kids safe. But we'd be crazy if we didn't wonder about the cost to our privacy.

That's what prompted Yvonne and Larry Meadows to file a lawsuit last month against a Lake Travis school district in Texas, where Raptorware is used.

The Meadows--who do not have criminal backgrounds--say that the district's background check policy violates their constitutional rights to freedom of association, and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure, as well as several state laws.

There are no easy answers. Clearly student safety trumps personal freedom. But our personal freedoms seem to be disappearing awfully fast.

As I watched my driver's license number zip off into cyberspace, it occurred to me that we all place a lot of trust in faceless technology. We don't, at any point, know how vulnerable we are. After all, just how invincible can a database be?

And as I left I wondered about all of the kindly Mrs. Hamps manning front desks in schools across the country, nonchalantly keeping sex offenders at bay.

Their job descriptions, I'm sure, have changed in ways they never could have imagined. ..News Source.. by Kelly Flynn The Flint Journal

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TX- Parents sue school over sex offender check system

The costs to perform this menial task is astronomical, see end of article.

12-1-2008 Texas:

AUSTIN — A background check system used by many Texas schools to spot visitors who are sex offenders is being challenged by two parents who say the process violates their privacy and other rights.

Yvonne and Larry Meadows are suing the Lake Travis school district over a computer system that checks visitors against a sex offender database by scanning their driver's license. Visitors who don't consent can be turned away.

The federal lawsuit filed in November is believed to be among the first legal challenges to the policy in Texas. Houston-based Raptor Systems, which performs background checks for Lake Travis and 5,000 other schools nationwide, said it was unaware of similar lawsuits.

The Meadowses say the computerized checks violate their constitutional rights, including freedom to associate with their children at school and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure. Neither are listed in the national sex offender database.

Yvonne Meadows said she objected to Bee Cave Elementary School scanning her license because she was concerned about identify theft and a private company collecting her personal information.

"Raptor sold (their system) on this 'registered sex offenders, we need to be on guard,' idea but it was primarily a visitor management system," Meadows told the Austin American-Statesman in its Monday editions.

The lawsuit seeks unspecified damages.

Lisa McBride, the lawyer for the Lake Travis school district, said the district thinks its system is reasonable and fully complies with state and federal law.

Yvonne Meadows said she was refused access to school events unless her license was scanned. She filed a grievance asking the school to instead check her status against the Justice Department's online sex offender database, according to the lawsuit filed in Travis County.

The district denied the grievance, and Meadows asked the state education commissioner to review the decision. The review is pending.

Other Raptor clients in Texas include the Dallas school district and Southside school district in San Antonio.

The Austin school district has the Raptor system in most campuses, paying the company $182,000 in startup costs and an annual $50,000 service fee.

-Well, they say there is a sucker born every minute. Hummm, could a PC w/Internet access to the National Sex Offender registry do the same thing? Best Buy sells such systems for $500-800 each.
..News Source.. by Chroin.com

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