News and Information

Keeping track of who's on campus
Bay News 9

April 29, 2006 – The Raptor Program will be expanding to all elementary schools in Pasco County.
A program that's successfully prevented at least one registered sex offender from gaining access to the grounds of a Pasco elementary school is expanding to all elementary schools in the county.

Three-year-old Lucas will join preschool when he turns four. His mother Jennifer Klemp said she's glad to know there will be extra protection waiting for him when he attends preschool.

"It should have been done a long time ago," Klemp said.

The way the Raptor system works is a visitor presents an ID to be screened. That information is checked against a sex offender/predator database.

If the visitor is approved, the equipment prints a badge for the visitor to wear that day. If the visitor is on an offender/predator list, the staff follows the procedure set in place, which so far means calling law enforcement to remove the person.

Propheta Baldwin has two children in elementary school.

"It will keep our children safe and I'll feel safe knowing they'll have that system," Baldwin said.

She spends a lot of time volunteering at her children's school and for the parents who can't spend a lot of time there, it will put their minds at ease.

"They can be at home or work knowing it's there for the kids," Baldwin said.

The sex offender predator database for this program covers 42 states. However, the Raptor only checks names and birth dates for sexual crime histories and doesn't reveal other potential criminal information.