Outside Sex Predators' Homes in Florida: Red Signs

Police in Bradford County, Florida, have taken a highly visible step in making sure no sexual predator goes unnoticed: Officials there last week erected bold red signs in front of the homes of 18 registered sexual predators. GTN News reports that the signs are permitted under a Florida statute that gives authorities the power to "inform the community and the public of the presence" of such an offender. They read: "[Name] is a convicted Sexual Predator and lives at this location." (Side note: Florida classifies sex offenders and sexual predators differently; the latter are those convicted of a single first-degree felony or multiple second-degree felonies of a sexual nature.)

A captain with the county's police department explains the reasoning to Vice: Though they already post notices to Facebook and go into the community to alert residents, "we realized there was a possible issue with continued notification. If somebody moves in after we've gone around notifying people, then they're not aware that there's a predator there." So how are these now-informed residents reacting? "It just astounded me really," says one who has seen a sign go up near his home. "It's like twenty feet behind our house. That's just scary. Dude could be like watching out his back window looking at us."