Posted by Tonya Kerr on Mon, Jan 24, 2011 @ 01:37 PM
Millions of Records. Instant Results.
Raptor’s V-soft Visitor Management Technology works in conjunction with RaptorTrace which provides schools and community facilities with an easy solution to pre-screen volunteers.
With RaptorTrace’s online criminal background screening service, schools and other organizations know the people they bring into their organization are people they can trust. Simply set up an approval queue through V-soft, and new volunteer information is automatically entered into RaptorTrace and ready to be submitted for screening.
RaptorTrace offers an affordable way to instantly pre-screen individuals such as applicants, volunteers, faculty, and members, against more than 313,000,000 national records* including:
Arrest Records (ARST)
Administrative Office of the Courts
Department of Corrections
County Court
District Court
Superior Court
Municipal Court
District Clerk
Common Pleas
Clerk of Court
*Available records vary by state
RaptorTrace offers Social Security number (SSN) searches at an extra charge, and it works with V-soft to pre-screen volunteers.
Learn more about RaptorTrace today. Raptor Technologies is a member of NAPBS, National Association of Professional Background Screeners.
For more information, visit www.raptorware.com
Posted by Tonya Kerr on Thu, Jan 20, 2011 @ 03:39 PM
Raptor's Virtual Volunteer: Communicate. Engage. Manage.
Only V-soft includes Virtual Volunteer, a powerful and fully integrated volunteer tool, as part of its web-based application.
Virtual Volunteer is a web-site designed to provide volunteers a way to log off-site hours, sign up for events, track expenses for tax purposes, and communicate with other volunteers.
Events. Virtual Volunteer keeps volunteers engaged with the activities of the school. Simply enter an event in V-soft and it will instantly appear in Virtual Volunteer, including event details and how many volunteers are needed.
Tracking Hours. On-site hours can be logged into V-soft at the school, which will instantly incorporate them into the Virtual Volunteer website, while off-site hours can be logged by volunteers into Virtual Volunteer from home or any workstation with internet access.
Thousands of schools and community facilities nationwide effectively utilize V-soft Virtual Volunteer on a daily basis- streamlining information and effectively documenting volunteers for a variety of applications.
For more information, visit www.raptoreware.com
Posted by Tonya Kerr on Tue, Jan 18, 2011 @ 09:19 AM
Thousands of schools and community facilities across the country use Raptor's V-soft visitor management and screening technology to help protect children from sex offenders, domestic dispute offenders and other trespassers.
Raptor’s V-soft works in conjunction with law enforcement to add an extra layer of security to help keep our kids safe.
What is Visitor Management?
Effective Visitor Management tracks visitors, volunteers, contractors and anyone entering a school or facility. Despite many facilities still depending on old fashioned pen and paper sign-ins, today's technology consistently proves to be a more effective and economical solution.
Raptor’s V-soft is web-based, feature-rich and easy to use, and it provides an affordable way to help schools and community facilities keep unwanted visitors out while tracking those they allow in.
How Does V-Soft Work?
Simply scan a visitor’s Driver License (or other state issued ID) and web-based V-soft instantly screens for registered sex offenders, domestic dispute offenders and other trespassers. When a visitor is cleared, V-soft prints a badge featuring their name, photo, date and time, and destination.
If a potential threat is identified, V-soft’s system instantly alerts designated officials, such as administrators and law enforcement, via email, telephone, text messaging and/or page.
V-soft can also be used to track and report faculty and volunteer hours as well as child arrival/departure times and pick up information. And because it’s web-based, it’s accessible from any workstation with a high speed Internet connection.
Raptor’s Unique Features
-Raptor’s web-based technology platform provides simplicity and critical capabilities that competitors cannot.
-Only V-soft includes Virtual Volunteer, a powerful and fully integrated volunteer tool, as part of its web-based application. Virtual Volunteer is a web-site designed to provide volunteers a way to log off-site hours, sign up for events, track expenses for tax purposes, and communicate with other volunteers.
-RaptorTrace offers an affordable way to instantly pre-screen individuals such as applicants, volunteers, faculty, and members, against more than 313,000,000 national records.
With Raptor You Know. We Are Keeping Watch.
From Raptor’s inception in 2003 to the end of the 2009-2010 school year, Raptor's V-soft identified and alerted officials to more than 15,500 sex offenders entering schools and other organizations where children were present. The system has also been credited by law enforcement with the arrests of many absconded offenders that cross state lines.
Today Raptor supports thousands of schools and organizations around the nation with its V-soft visitor management and monitoring system. Raptor is Keeping Watch.
Posted by Tonya Kerr on Fri, Jan 14, 2011 @ 09:13 AM
Protecting our children is a job without end. That’s why Raptor extends its reach into the community, supporting law enforcement agencies, and schools and organizations in their ongoing safety efforts.
“It's everyone’s responsibility to protect our children, and it's our duty to use every tool available,” said Raptor CEO Allan Measom. “Raptor supports those directly affected by sexual predator crimes through charitable contributions and other community outreach efforts. It takes a concerted effort to keep our children safe. Raptor is up to the task.”
More than 6,000 schools and YMCA's across the nation use Raptor's vSoft visitor management technology, and last year alone, Raptor's live team of professionals helped identify more than 2,200 registered sex offenders while working closely with school administrators, school resource officers and local law enforcement.
Darkness to Light & Raptor Technologies
Measom and Raptor Technologies received with the 2009 Corporate Voice of Courage Award from the national non-profit organization, Darkness to Light (D2L), which educates adults to prevent, recognize and react responsibly to child sexual abuse.
Measom also trained alongside members of his own staff to become facilitators of the D2L Stewards of Children program, and thanks to Raptor, thousands of parents checking through to visit their children are also receiving D2L’s Seven Step Cards. Raptor Technologies also created an interactive workshop to introduce Darkness to Light to hundreds of members of the National Association of School Resource Officers.
National & Regional Law Enforcement Organizations
Raptor Technologies, Inc. is proud to support the following national and regional law enforcement organizations:
Colorado Association of School Resource Officers (CASRO)
Florida Association of School Resource Officers (FASRO)
Iowa Association of School Resource Officers (IASRO)
Kentucky Center for School Safety (KCSS)
National Association of School Resource Officers (NASRO)
National Association of School Law Enforcement Officers (NASSLEO)
New Jersey Association of School Resource Officers (NJASRO)
Ohio School Resource Officers Association (OSROA)
Posted by Tonya Kerr on Thu, Jan 13, 2011 @ 02:27 PM
Ken Trump's blog on K-12 school safety, security, and emergency planning trends, hot topics, and best practices.
One of our favorite security safety experts on K-12 schools is Ken Trump and he regularly posts some great blogs on the issue at SchoolSecurityBlog.com. More times than not, he sums up what we’re thinking here at Raptor. Trump is a national consultant, speaker, author, blogger, and expert on K-12 school safety, school security, school emergency preparedness and crisis planning.
In one of Trump’s recent blogs, The “Shellacking” of School Safety, he talks about budget cuts and academics shifting the focus and resources from proactive to reactive school safety efforts.
It’s no secret that the national “buzz” right now is all about bullying and civil rights issues. In fact, according to Trump, the U.S. Department of Education’s leadership has proudly announced it will no longer focus on school safety from the perspective of violence, but instead will focus on bullying, school climate, and civility.
Trump says, in his 25-plus years of experience, the result is a “heightened apathy, burnout, and skewed focus in the education community and in skewed federal school safety policy and funding.”
Trump goes on to say that the greatest opportunity for positive change is actually at the local school district level. “School boards and superintendents continue to have the power to make school safety a real, meaningful priority,” says Trump.
Read Trumps blog at SchoolSecurityBlog.com. Let him know what you think. Read through a few of his blogs and subscribe- it’s free and worth your time and effort. We guarantee it.
Posted by Tonya Kerr on Thu, Jan 13, 2011 @ 02:25 PM
As Published in Dec 2010 School Plannning and Management Magazine (http://schoolplanning.epubxpress.com/ ) p.46
The four D's of security will stand the test of time: deter, detect, delay and detain. And when it comes to keeping our children safe, most schools are doing their best with the resources they have. In fact, according to the National Center for Education Statistics’ 2009 Indicators of School Crime and Safety Report, 90 percent of schools across the nation attempt to control access to some or all of their campuses during school hours.
While that may sound impressive, most of us in the industry realize that many of those schools are basically using door locks or student-aged hall monitors to control who may or may not have access to their campuses.
With technology, however, the definition of Access Control is rapidly changing, and trying to keep up with the latest innovations is a full time job.
Access Control is no longer just about locking doors. Today, Access Control is about a total integration of equipment, technology and manpower. The buzzword these days is “convergence.” Basically, this is the idea of tying electronic or physical security into IT or cyber security and data management. It’s about keeping unwanted visitors out, while also limiting and tracking who is where on your campus and when.
Before any organization jumps feet first into investing in costly, high tech security technology, it’s important to identify and prioritize your problems and potential emergencies based on everything from geography to community expectations. Once a school commits to controlling access, the solution must be a comprehensive one.
According to National School Safety and Security Services (schoolsecurity.org), there are several points schools should consider before putting out any requests for proposals.
Schools should identify and rank problems or risks unique to each campus- from hurricanes to intruders. If technology is a part of that planned solution, consider bids that emphasize quality and performance instead of just the bottom dollar. Also, consider asking for two kinds of bids, some meeting your specifications and others without constraints so that you can compare the two to see if new options should be considered.
A wide range of school safety and security measures is regularly published by the National Clearinghouse for Educational Facilities (NCEF) which can help schools assess better ways of controlling access to and within a campus.
In July 2010, NCEF’s Tod Schneider outlined School Security Technologies which touched on the pro’s and con’s of various Access Control Options. Schneider outlined options like locks, latches and keys; electronic access control like card keys and biometrics; visitor screening and badging; surveillance equipment like cameras and recorders; weapons detectors; communications; and alarms.
For example, if a school is looking into retrofitting conventional door locks with electronic cards, you might consider using an existing WiFi network and compatible locksets for centralized control without a need to hard wire. This is just one example of combining existing resources to beef up Access Control on campus.
When it comes to screening visitors, scanning government issued i.d.’s against sex offender and law enforcement data bases has been proven an effective tool. These systems can also confirm authorization for anyone picking up a child, track students and volunteers, and even send district wide emergency communications.
Biometrics can be expensive, and from an affordability and accuracy standpoint, fingerprint biometrics is by far the most popular option. Limitations include temperature variations and unreadable fingerprints of young children up to the age of eight years, among other problems.
Access Control options also walk the tightrope of providing effective security while still maintaining a welcoming and friendly atmosphere that should be maintained at schools which serve the families in our communities. It’s not easy, and many compromises effect the final integrated system.
No matter what, it’s important to remember that there will never be one security technology that can solve all school Access Control problems. A comprehensive prevention and intervention policy must involve people, technology, equipment, constant upgrades and good old common sense.
Posted by Tonya Kerr on Tue, Jan 11, 2011 @ 08:39 AM
Raptor's Web-Based Visitor Management Technology
Raptor’s Visitor Management Technology protects thousands of children nationwide from sex offenders, domestic dispute offenders and other trespassers.
Raptor’s web-based platform provides simplicity and critical capabilities which no other visitor management company can offer, and it’s why thousands of school districts and organizations across the country choose Raptor, time and time again.
First Web-Based Visitor Management System
Founded in 2003, Houston-based Raptor Technologies, Inc., built the first web-based Visitor Management system and pioneered the technology that screens visitors for sex offenders nationally.
From inception to the end of the 2009-2010 school year, Raptor's V-soft identified and alerted officials to more than 15,500 sex offenders entering schools and other organizations where children were present. The system has also been credited by law enforcement with the arrests of many absconded offenders that cross state lines.
Data Security
Data Security is always a top priority for Raptor Technologies, Inc. Raptor’s V-soft system gleans minimal data to accurately and efficiently screen visitors entering a campus or facility.
Raptor utilizes firewalls, intrusion prevention systems, host integrity monitoring, port filtering as well as many other security processes and procedures to protect all its systems. Raptor has implemented data security safeguards based upon accepted industry standards to protect personal information from unauthorized access, use, disclosure, alteration, or loss.
What does Raptor’s web-based technology mean to customers?
Today Raptor supports thousands of schools and organizations around the nation with its V-soft visitor management and monitoring system.
-No per seat/workstation license fee. Each facility/building gets multiple workstation accessibility for just $432.00 per site, per year.
-Off-site accessibility. Whether you’re an administrator at the district office or a school law enforcement officer in a patrol car, you can view visitor data from any computer with an Internet connection.
-Critical split-second response capabilities in emergency situations.
-Free automatic software upgrades. No need to pay for upgrades or new features. And because we’re web-based, they’re made automatically.
-Alert monitoring. Our web-based system enables Raptor technicians to monitor your sex offender alerts every day.
For more information about Raptor’s Web-Based Visitor Management, visit www.raptorware.com
Posted by Tonya Kerr on Tue, Jan 11, 2011 @ 08:38 AM
Neighbors in the Colorado community of Northglenn are surprised by the logic of a Colorado Bureau of Investigations Spokesman who says a sex offender who lived near a local middle school was not a danger to students.
Matthew Anderson, 40, was arrested back in June 2006, after talking online to a police officer he thought was a girl under 15. Anderson served two years probation, but an arrest warrant was issued in 2011 for allegedly trying to lure another girl. During a shootout with police, Anderson turned the gun on himself.
When parents raised questions to authorities about why their children were walking past Anderson’s house everyday on the way to and from the middle school, the Colorado official stated that “just because they (sex offenders) are repulsive doesn't mean out of sight, out of mind.”
Lance Clem, spokesman for Colorado Bureau of Investigations, said studies show residency restrictions don't do anything to prevent repeat sex crimes since offenders often go outside their neighborhood.
"It's very unusual to have an offender who's a total stranger pop out of a vehicle and assault somebody. It doesn't happen often," says Clem.
Five cities in the State of Colorado prohibit registered sex offenders from living in a close proximity to a school- Northglenn is not one of them. Only 23 states prohibit sex offenders from living near schools.
What do you think? Do residency restrictions help protect our children? Let us know what you think!
http://www.kwgn.com/news/kdvr-sex-offender-lived-near-school-txt,0,2404621.story
Posted by Tonya Kerr on Tue, Jan 11, 2011 @ 08:37 AM
Millard South High School assistant principal Vicki Kaspar, 58, left, and principal Curtis Case, 45, are seen in photos released by the school. (Millard Public Schools/Associated Press)
Our hearts go out to the family and friends of the assistant principal and principal at an Omaha, Nebraska, high school who were shot this month by a 17-year-old student who had just been suspended from classes.
Assistant Principal Vicki Kaspar was killed, the principal was wounded, and the student eventually shot and killed himself with his father’s police weapon.
By all accounts, the school utilized numerous safety precautions such as a school resource officer, an unarmed guard, security cameras and a check-in procedure which the student followed.
The student’s father, a local police detective, had just talked with his son hours before, and the assistant principal welcomed the student into her office just minutes before she was fatally shot.
Undoubtedly, school officials are already reviewing their security policies, but no one should forget that potential tragedies like this are a constant threat to the professionals and volunteers who work with our youth every day.
While no one advocates running our schools like maximum-security prisons, there are no easy answers to the debate of freedom versus safety.
Nothing guarantees the well-being of the people who serve on the front lines of our nation’s schools.
But as Kaspar’s colleagues tout the legacy of her dedication to her job, may her colleagues and others across the nation continue the ongoing quest to keep our students and faculty safe in our schools.
Tell us what you think. We'd love to hear your ideas.
Posted by Tonya Kerr on Mon, Jan 03, 2011 @ 11:49 AM
Debate: Do no-gun “safe zones” deter or invite trouble?
School officials in Panama City, Florida, are hailing district security chief and former police officer Mike Jones a hero today after a fatal school board shooting left one man dead.
Mike Jones, Panama City district security chief and former police officer www.salvagesanta.com
Raptor Technologies is proud to call Jones a friend and has worked closely with him while installing Raptor visitor management and instant notification systems throughout the Panama City School System.
Accoroding to news reports, 56-year-old Clay Duke, briefly addressed the Panama City School Board about his wife recently being fired, used a can of red spray paint to paint a large "V" with a circle around it on the wall behind him, and then pulled out a small caliber, semi-automatic handgun.
While Duke released the women and children from the room, he told remaining hostages that “Somebody is going to die today.”
Video screenshot from WMBB-TV
Duke opened fire and sent school board members scrambling and diving for cover. That’s when Jones ran in, exchanged gunfire and wounded the man who then killed himself, according to news video and police reports.
Miraculously, no one else was hit even though Duke, an ex-convict, fired and missed hitting School Superintendent Bill Husfelt.
After numerous shots were exchanged, Jones wounded Duke in the leg and then Duke fatally shot himself, according to Police Sgt. Jeff Becker. The video shows a distraught Jones, with his gun at his side, being comforted by colleagues as he says he had never shot anyone before.
SWAT officers then stormed the room and ordered everyone onto the ground. Husfelt told The Associated Press that he considered Jones a hero.
All of us at Raptor agree. Thanks to Jones’ fast-acting response to the instant emergency notification, lives were undoubtedly saved.
"Safe Zone" Debate
This tragedy has also raised debate about so-called “safe zones” where, by law, no weapons are permitted on government and school property. It’s obvious in the news video that Duke seems confident that he is the ONLY person in the room with a gun, until he was surprised by Jones.
Before the gunfire exchange, Ginger Littleton (a female board member who had been released with the women and children) bravely re-entered the room and snuck up behind Duke to try to disarm him. She swung her purse- her only weapon- but Duke was unfazed and asked her to leave.
What do you think?
Do these “safe zones” give individuals with bad intent, like Duke, easy access to locations that, by law, host unarmed citizens? Had anyone in the room been carrying a concealed handgun, might Duke have been deterred?
Mike Jones did his job. Thank God he was armed and ready to do it.