The red sign is just the first of more than a dozen that the Bradford County Sheriff's Office will put up at sexual predators' homes across the county in an effort to inform people living in the area. "Just the thought of that of them being outside and he could be watching or, you know, just come by and just wipe them up. The sign was put up by the Bradford County Sheriff's Office, but it's drawing attention because it says a sexual predator lives there. We're certain challenges wouldn't stand up in court though, because we're being directed by a Florida statute, and the statute specifically says, "the sheriff of the county or the police chief of the municipality where the sexual predator resides shall notify the community and the public of the presence of the sexual predator in a manner that is deemed appropriate by the sheriff or the chief of police." I didn't even like going to the scary movies when I was a kid, let alone going to scary houses. The Sheriff's Office tells GTN News the rest of the red signs should be up by the end of the week.
– 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."