It was meant to catch criminals that sign up for food stamps, not specifically pedos. Here's the best part, it was started in 1996, who was president in 1996? Bill Fucking Clinton.
Operation Talon: Fugitive Felons Made Ineligible To Receive Food Stamp Benefits The 1996 Welfare Reform Act made felony fugitives ineligible for food stamps. This law allows for comparing law enforcement fugitive felony information with food stamp recipient records. Under this provision, OIG created “Operation Talon” in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies across the United States to locate and apprehend fugitives illegally receiving program benefits.
Since its inception in early 1997, Operation Talon has resulted in 8,793 arrests, simultaneously getting many dangerous criminals off the welfare rolls and off the streets. Serious crimes perpetrated by those arrested include homicide offenses, sex offenses, kidnapping, assault, robbery, and narcotics. For example, Operation Talon identified an individual who, along with two others, was alleged to have executed a victim as part of a cocaine distribution conspiracy. OIG agents and detectives from the New Jersey State Police, the New York State Police, and the New York City Police Department apprehended the individual at the address he reported on his food stamp application. Since they determine food stamp eligibility, individual States are best positioned to estimate how much money Operation Talon has saved. It is difficult, however, for most States to determine cost savings because, even though a fugitive is removed from eligibility, there may be other people in that household who receive benefits. New Jersey, which has developed a formula for approximating savings, estimates that $1.9 million has been saved since 1996 in that State.