Just in time for Halloween, Florida’s top law enforcement agency has rolled out an app to make you more aware of potential threats in your neighborhood.
INTERACTIVE MAP: Search for sex offenders your neighborhood
Lucia Perez, with her family, including five nieces and nephews are putting the finishing touches on their pumpkins ahead of Halloween at the downtown West Palm Beach pumpkin patch.
“They get to decorate, pick out their own little pumpkin, carve it, paint it. It’s just really fun for them,” she said.
Halloween is supposed to be a spooky time, but a safe time.
“Safety is definitely an issue,” she said. “You’re always scared that something might happen because we see on the news there are so many predators that you don’t even know where they are.”
Well, there’s an app for that.
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement introduced Monday its new app to provide a level of safety that fits in your or your kid’s hand.
“We think that we have to go online and search and it’s kind of complicated sometimes, so it’s really cool to have an app like that,” Perez said.
We also introduced the app the Jupiter mother of two, Stephanie Muzzillo.
“I love that you can have alerts on the app that can go straight to your phone. So you can be on the run and your kid can call you and say, ‘Can I go to this person’s house?’ All of a sudden and you can check your app, check the area,” Muzillo said.
It doesn't just track sex offenders. There are seven features to the app, like anonymous reporting of suspicious of activity, look up missing people and unsolved cases.
“Believe it or not, you’ll have kids that will use the app and they’ll actually take it seriously and they’ll take it into account which areas they are within their community,” she said.
The app is easy to find and free; just search FDLE wherever you download your apps.