Is the Visitor Management System Sex Offender Data Up To Date?

SafeVisitor Solutions frequently receives questions concerning how often updates are made to their sex offender information. When a visitor comes into a building that is protected by SafeVisitor, the office will scan their license or ID. This information will be run against the registry which has access to the most current information regarding sex offenders.

Having current information about sex offenders is critical to the safety of children. SafeVisitor uses a third-party database. This search accesses multiple data sources so that the information is being continuously updated. Each source is updated in every state multiple times a day. This way nothing is missed.  The benefits of getting the data from multiple sources is that the sources can be checked against one another. Data comes from all over the country and not from just one location. In this way, information is continuously updated as it is received.

This continuous method of collecting the latest data lessens the possibility that someone might slip through the cracks. This system not only makes the school significantly safer for children, but it also makes the jobs of the administration easier. Administrators can depend upon this reliable and current system to vet every visitor against the latest sex registry information.

With a constantly updated registry, the school is a much safer place. SafeVisitor Solutions takes great pride in the reliability of their system of keeping the most up-to-date sex offender information that is currently available.

Do not assume your data is being updated.  We recently replaced another visitor management system with a large school district that had no idea their sex offender data was stored on a local database that had not been updated in 3 years.  That could have (and might have) lead to sex offenders being allowed access to children. 

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Visitor Management System: Do You Really Know All of Your Visitors?

When I am talking to small schools about SafeVisitor and visitor management in general, I will hear comments like:

“I don’t think we really need something like this.”

“Mary works the front desk and she’s lived here all her life.”

“She knows everybody!”

Coming from a large family in a small community, I completely understand that mindset. In a small community, it can seem that everyone knows what’s going on with everyone else . . . or at least they think they do. While I am sympathetic to this point of view, something happened a year and a half ago that caused me to see things differently.

One day we received a frantic call from one of our clients. They had a hit on the National Sex Offender Registry (NSOR) for a temporary visitor. “John Doe” had come to school with his wife to have lunch with his stepson. When the possible hit came up on the screen, the picture shown was tagged with a completely different name then the one they’d been given. The secretary was certain that the picture was of the person standing in front of her although the individual appeared to be several years older than the registry picture.

The name on the possible NSOR hit came up as “Tom Buck” (not the actual name). They questioned the guy who agreed there was a resemblance, but maintained it wasn’t him. His wife agreed saying, “His name is John, not Tom”. Apparently not wanting to make a fuss, John said it was ok and they left. His unusual lack of concern alerted the staff to a possible problem, so once they left, I was on the phone again with the staff trying to determine exactly what was going on. It was an interesting story . . .

In SafeVisitor, when a possible hit comes up there is the ability to click on the person and go directly to the NSOR page to get additional information. Initially, there was confusion because while the names didn’t match, the picture was undeniably similar to the man who’d just left. A quick click on the picture and everything was revealed. “John Doe” was an alias of “Tom Buck”. “Tom” had been convicted on multiple charges of violent sexual assault in another state 19 years earlier. Somehow, he was able to get a driver's license under his alias in a neighboring state where he had been living for several years while never registering as a sex offender. Even his wife had no idea about his previous life!

The police were notified, but I have no idea what the final outcome was in this case. I do know SafeVisitor enabled the school to avert the presence of a dangerous individual. When the wife was alerted to her husband’s dangerous history, she too, was able to take steps to protect her family.

This experience was an eye-opener for me, and I now use it as an example whenever I conduct user training. It’s a real-life reminder that you don’t always know who is living in your community or what their past may have been. You can never be too careful when it comes to knowing who is around you, your family, your co-workers, or

your students. With the National Sex Offender Registry and an internal Exclusion List option SafeVisitor can do quite a bit to help ensure that you are aware of who is visiting your school or business. In this instance, social familiarity would have allowed a sex offender to have repeated access to children and no one would have ever been the wiser until something bad happened. When it comes to safety, a proactive plan is always better than a reactive one.

If you are interested in learning more about how SafeVisitor can protect your organization you can sign up for a webinar by going to:

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