News and Information

Edgewood invests in new system to flag sex offenders
San Antonio Business Journal , Monday, July 25, 2005

San Antonio, Texas – Edgewood Independent School District is working to make it harder for sex offenders to set foot on one of its 23 campuses.

The school district awarded Raptor Technologies Inc. in Houston a contract to purchase the company's V-soft (Visitor, Student or Faculty Tracking) system.

The system creates a badge with a visitor's name, date, time of visit and destination while they are on campus.

However, the software is also designed to screen and track visitors to school campuses by scanning a state-issued ID, such as a driver's license. Once screened, the system automatically scans 42 states' sex offender databases for potential matches.

If a match is found, the system alerts school administrators and law enforcement personnel via e-mail or instant message to a cell phone to let them know that a sex offender has been found at the campus.

Company officials say the software can also screen for individuals with restraining orders against them or who are embroiled in custody issues.

Raptor President and CEO Allan Measom says the company's software is currently in use at more than 800 schools nationwide, including North East Independent School District and some schools within San Antonio Independent School District.

Edgewood will begin requiring parents and visitors to start presenting ID when they check into the school's front office at the beginning of the school year.

"Pedophiles and other registered sex offenders are getting on school campuses -- and now we have proof," Measom says.

The company pulled together statistics from its Texas schools alone.

"Seventy-three percent of all of the registered sex offenders logged at our Texas school installations had previous convictions of sexual crimes against children -- with the victim's average age being 11," Measom says.

"The most disturbing part of this is that most of these (sex offenders) are parents or guardians with children at that school. And even worse than that, many of them visit the school on a regular basis," he says.