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Card-Scanning Technology Provides Instant Background Check at SoCal Schools

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This story originally appeared on KNBC, the NBC affiliate in Southern California, and it was written by Lolita Lopez. To view the original article in its entirety, click here.


LOS ANGELES – Hundreds of schools from Orange to Riverside counties are using technology that provides instant sex offender and background checks for any visitors, adding an additional layer of security at campuses.

Brock Carothers of Raptor Technologies runs the system used at 15,000 schools nationwide, including every school in the Covina-Valley Unified School District and in many schools across Southern California.

“The fact is we are flagging 30 a day nationwide. Thirty registered sex offenders a day,” Carothers said.
Visitors put their driver’s license through a scanner and the computer checks a database. The system can scan green cards, military IDs and passports. It does not store private information and can be customized to deal with various situations, including custodial issues.

Principal Kim Sheehan of Barranca Elementary in Covina says the system goes beyond the traditional emergency contact cards often used in schools to check who can pick up a child – or be on campus at all.

“If they were a painter, a construction worker or someone doing an inspection we didn’t know if they were cleared, this system Raptor has allowed us the added layer of security,” Sheehan said.

If a parent or family member isn’t supposed to pick up a child, an alert is sent to a predetermined list of people which could include law enforcement. If Sheehan receives an alert, she treads lightly.

“I would just have a conversation with the adult that was here and just say we are having a problem with our system, I need to check with the district office,” she said.

There have been no alerts at Barranca, but at another elementary school in the district Raptor says two registered sex offenders and a couple of custodial issues have been flagged.