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." (More Florida stories.)