News and Information

Scanner at School Tracks Sex Offender
WALA Fox 10, Mobile, AL

11/16/2005 – A school in Escambia County Florida is stepping up security against sex offenders. Pine Forest High School has a new way of finding out if someone visiting the school is a sex offender. Any visitor who comes to the school must show their driver's license and this scanner will show the rest. It searches the databases of sex offenders in 44 states looking for a match. It's called V-soft. Officer Mike Haveard says it's a lot better than their old way of doing things. "In the past we had no way to see if this person was good or bad or what the situation was," says Havevard.

Now officials will know if a visitor is a sexual predator or pedophile in less than a minute. "It comes up with a picture and then what happens is it ask you if this is the person trying to register. If you say yes, I get an email in my office," said Havevard. The email reads "There is a sexual offender registering at Pine Forest High School." He'll also get a portable email.

"We don't want to sit there and wait until something happens and say we should have done something. We want to ahead of the game," said Havevard.

In addition to tracking sex offenders, the program is also being used to track all the schools visitors. Once you license or ID is scanned, V-soft prints out a badge with your name, picture, and location. You have to wear the badge as long as you are in school. Officer Havevard is excited about the systems many possible uses."I love it," he said. He also loves knowing no one is getting inside school doors, who shouldn't be.

Pine Forest is the only school in our area using the V-soft technology. The superintendent of schools in Escambia County Florida says he wants the scanners installed in every school in the district. The system cost about $1,500.