News and Information

Software ID's Sex Offender School Workers
By Heather Ishimaru, ABC7/KGO-TV/DT, ABC7 News Team
Heather Ishimaru, General Assignment Reporter

Aug. 31, 2005 - If a registered sex offender came to your child's school as a construction worker or a one-day volunteer, would you have any way of knowing? Would your school's administrators? There is a way to find out, and when school started Wednesday at the Livermore Charter School, it become the first in California to put some new technology to work.

At the Livermore Charter School, like all schools, faculty, staff and regular volunteers have to clear a background check. But workers, volunteers, and parents who are occasional visitors on campus do not.

Michael Hazelhofer, principal: "The parents insisted that we have systems that safeguard their students while at school."

So Principal Michael Hazelhoffer started looking around and found Allan Measom and his V-soft software. By screening a state-issued ID, registered sex offenders can be stopped at the front door.

Allan Measom, Raptorware: "Now it's going to check 42 state's sex offender databases. If there's not a match it will print out a badge at this time."

Measom's Houston-based company, Raptorware developed V-soft to check names and dates-of-birth against public sex offender databases in all 42 states where they're available. In seconds, a badge is printed with the person's name, picture, and area of campus where they're headed.

But if there's a match, an alert goes out immediately via cell-phone or email to designated school officials and/or law enforcement.

Allan Measom, Raptorware: "I don't care where they are, if I have their picture, first name, last name, DOB, they're going to show up is they come onto any of my properties."

V-soft is in 10 states so far. The Livermore Charter School is the first in California.

Livermore parent Denis Roland is thankful for the added layer of security against predators.

Denis Roland, parent: "I'm teaching my kids what to do with these kinds of people, and they'll probably be okay, but you're never safe enough."

Heather Ishimaru, Livemore: "The system does have its limitations, without an ID a person could easily give a false name. Then it's up to the school to decide under what conditions to allow them on campus."

Also, only 42 states have public sex offender databases, and only about half of all California's registered sex offenders are on the public database.

Still, Measom says schools now using the system identify predators coming onto campus everyday.

Allan Measom, Raptorware: "This is the best thing out there, I mean this far exceeds anything out there."

And he thinks the system can only improve.

Allan Measom, Raptorware: "It's something that's needed, and as we add more and more schools to the system, and the political pressure and the other pressures will allow some of the databases in other states to start contributing."

V-soft costs about $1,500 to set up, with an annual fee of $400.