A Runaway
I don't like runaways. Not so much the runaways themselves, but just dealing with them. The other day I was dispatched to find a 14 year old runaway. After looking for a little bit I found her.
Once I found her I took her to the station, and that is where the trouble began. I tried to contact her mother to come and get her, but mom was not home. It turned out mom was on her way to Oklahoma to drop another child off.
The county I work in has no juvenile detention facility so I called Child Protective Services (CPS) hoping they would come take custody of this runaway and find someplace for her to stay. The first thing the lady from CPS told me was to take her to a shelter in the nearby big city. The shelter would keep her for two days without parental consent but she could leave whenever she wanted to.
I am not the brightest guy in the world but does anyone see a problem with this? I sure do. I have taken custody of a juvenile, which means I am responsible for her. Taking her from our relatively safe town and dropping her off at a shelter where she can leave when she wants hardly sounds like a wise thing to do. She could decide to leave and then be out on the streets of one of the larger cities in the country doing whatever 14 year old runaways do. How would I explain it if she ended up getting assaulted or murdered?
After several hours of doing CPS's job I located a friend to take custody of the runaway. The lady from CPS did not seem happy when I told her I had not taken the girl to the shelter. I really didn't like releasing her to the friend but we could not babysit her all night.
Later in the shift I was able to get a hold of the runaways mother. She was home from Oklahoma and had gotten her daughter. That was a relief.
I have never been impressed with CPS. It has been my experience that they don't intervene when they should and in situations where they don't need to intervene they do. I'm not the only cop that feels this way.
This runaway was not your typical runaway. She did not run because she was being a teenager. She ran because her home life is completed messed up. I hope she takes some of our conversation to heart.
According to the CPS lady CPS has files on this family. This seems like a situation where CPS needs to do something but they aren't.
Once I found her I took her to the station, and that is where the trouble began. I tried to contact her mother to come and get her, but mom was not home. It turned out mom was on her way to Oklahoma to drop another child off.
The county I work in has no juvenile detention facility so I called Child Protective Services (CPS) hoping they would come take custody of this runaway and find someplace for her to stay. The first thing the lady from CPS told me was to take her to a shelter in the nearby big city. The shelter would keep her for two days without parental consent but she could leave whenever she wanted to.
I am not the brightest guy in the world but does anyone see a problem with this? I sure do. I have taken custody of a juvenile, which means I am responsible for her. Taking her from our relatively safe town and dropping her off at a shelter where she can leave when she wants hardly sounds like a wise thing to do. She could decide to leave and then be out on the streets of one of the larger cities in the country doing whatever 14 year old runaways do. How would I explain it if she ended up getting assaulted or murdered?
After several hours of doing CPS's job I located a friend to take custody of the runaway. The lady from CPS did not seem happy when I told her I had not taken the girl to the shelter. I really didn't like releasing her to the friend but we could not babysit her all night.
Later in the shift I was able to get a hold of the runaways mother. She was home from Oklahoma and had gotten her daughter. That was a relief.
I have never been impressed with CPS. It has been my experience that they don't intervene when they should and in situations where they don't need to intervene they do. I'm not the only cop that feels this way.
This runaway was not your typical runaway. She did not run because she was being a teenager. She ran because her home life is completed messed up. I hope she takes some of our conversation to heart.
According to the CPS lady CPS has files on this family. This seems like a situation where CPS needs to do something but they aren't.
posted by TexasCop at 19:44
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