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DPS Gets District-Wide Sex Offender Check, Photo I.D. Badge System

DETROIT (WWJ) - In an effort to improve campus safety and security for students and staff, visitors gaining access to Detroit Public Schools are now background-checked through Fast-Pass, SISCO's high-speed visitor management system.

The system scans visitors' driver licenses and state ID cards and cross-checks the information with national sex-offender registries. Individuals who are identified as sex offenders will be denied entry to school buildings, and visitors who pass the background check will be issued temporary photo ID badges.

"With about 42,500 sex offenders in Michigan, many of them in this region, the ability to instantly identify and remove them from our school buildings will create safer learning environments for our students," said DPS Inspector General Wilbert Van Marsh said in a statement.

"This is an effective system, used in dozens of school districts, hospitals, government and law enforcement agencies around the country, and we expect it will make a difference in our schools."

The badges print in about 15 seconds and indicate which area of the school the visitor may have access to. The system also allows DPS to create its own database of people who are barred from entering school buildings.

In its winning bid for the project, SISCO has also provided the school system with a photo identification badge solution, easily identifying students and staff.

"This system will allow us to know exactly who is entering our schools buildings," said DPS Police Chief Roderick Grimes said in a statement. "It offers us a high-tech way of keeping track of who is in our buildings, which is useful in cases of emergency."

The Fast-Pass visitor badge system costs $131,000 and includes a camera, adhesive paper badge printer, driver license reader and bar-code scanner.

The system was funded through the $500.5 million Proposal S bond initiative Detroit voters approved in November 2009.

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