Posted: 6/20/2009 1:04:04 PM EDT
| Why is it that police departments do little when a parent calls them to report a minor child has run away or is missing. |
|
Lawsuits from the ACLU in the early 90's made the runaway crimes disappear. It isn't illegal to run away from home. The ACLU used the claim that the child has a right to flee from an abusive home and criminalizing the running away hinders the needy ones from fleeing.
So, now the police are truly powerless in dealing with juveniles. Safe homes are available, but they usually have an open-door policy where the juvis can just run away. A missing child is a different game, provided there is a reason to believe they are missing and not a runaway. Age is a factor in both groups though, which will change the police response. |
| And another twist is agencies were no longer able to house runaways with those actually convicted of a crime. Taking up cells for runaways instead of those actually committing crimes ran into space issues. The runaway would be a temporary housing, pending a court hearing or parent's arrival. Due to the problems of fighting and injuries, the housing was separated in larger places. |
|
Quoted:
Why is it that police departments do little when a parent calls them to report a minor child has run away or is missing. Just what is it you expect? All the agencies I have worked for file a report, send out a "Be On the Look Out" (BOLO) to areas/agencies of interest, and arrest any adult in the run-a-way's presence if there is probable cause to believe the adult Knew, or reasonably should have known, the minor way a run-a-way. I have made quite a few cases charged either as Harboring an Un-wed Minor, or Contributing to the Delinquency of a Minor, with 100% success. My personal goal is to make it known that Jane or John Doe runs away a lot. If you are with him or her, you better know what their status is. Same for the juveniles place of employment. I almost arrested the manager of a McDonalds once because she allowed a known juvenile run-a-way to continue to come to work. By letting her come to work, the manager was "assisting" in the delinquency... the State Atty's Office had zero issues with it. Bottom line... I take a hard aggressive approach in hopes of reducing the amount of repeat reports, some kids run-a-way as fast as you take them home and it's a complete pain in the ass. Are you not getting support from your local agency? |
|
Quoted:
You also have to quantify juvenile, it varies state to state and statute to statute. +1 In South Carolina a 17 year old CAN NOT be a run-a-way. However, when they decide to come home, the parent CAN NOT refuse to let them come home. It's a Dependant/Neglected -vs- Delinquent issue concerning 17 and older -vs- under 17, as defined by law. At least that's the way it was years ago when I worked LEO there... |
When my (step) daughter took off a few years ago, LE was actually pretty helpful (including many here  and some who broke cover in GD and the MO HTF), if limited.The only sticking point I had was that we had gotten a LSP (Last Seen Point) and reported in to the MO LEA that was handling the case - they annotated the file "juvenile located" and essentially round-filed it, then wouldn't go and knock on the door to verify, saying the case was "now closed". 
|
|
Quoted:
Why is it that police departments do little when a parent calls them to report a minor child has run away or is missing. Lets see, this is what we (my dept) do: 1) enter the child as missing or runaway (which ever fits) into the Nationwide computer system LEIN.Obtain photo of child from parents for future use if needed. 2) BOL to every dept/LEIN terminal in our region and any area's if there is info where the kid is going. 3) If appropriate, activate the Amber Alert system through our State Police Ops center and contact Center for Missing and Exploited children for assistance (media involvement etc). 4) check all local areas that the parents advise the kid may be, friends houses, hang outs, drop in centers,talk to friends, teachers, if available etc. 5) If the kid is a repeat runaway we counsel the parent on how to file incorragibilty charges through the juvenile court, but this has to be done by the parent and only after they can prove that this is the last resort (family counseling failed, kid dropped out of school etc). We do not have an avenue to have a runaway lodged anywhere other than at home or with a relative. 6) Advise the parent to contact the PD when the kid comes home (so they can be cancelled in LEIN), because in 14 years, I have not had a single runaway not return with in 48hours. 7) Write a report about the whole shooting match and what I had done so that if the kid, god forbides, doesnt ever come home, mine and my dept's collective asses are covered (this applies to a kid that is runaway for 30 minutes or how ever long, if the call is made and a number is generated we write paper). So now you know what I do on a run away why dont you tell us why you ask your blanket accusitory question about the lack of action by police on this matter? Please also include what you would have liked to see handled differently in your case. Thanks, J- |
|
If a parent reports a juvenile as a "missing person" not a runaway, we take a report.
Usually, they are runaways who are going to return within a week. There's the off chance the juvenile may be missing, so we cover our buns and take a real report. Taking reports is good. Problem children do runaway and return on a regular basis. A history of "runaway" police reports allows the parent or guardian to get that child into a group home or whatever other social program is available. |
|
BC resources are limited, cities are huge and most of the time they are at a friend's.
Or, like last week, they are upstairs asleep in their bed and awesome parent #1 didn't even bother to look in their room before jumping on 9 11. seriously though, what should they do. We send out a TCIC/NCIC bullet and to every car working at that time. not really sure what else can be expected. In addition, if they ran away once, what's to say they stay put when you bring them back? |
|
because resources tied up for a repeat runaway child are crazy...there are at least two other state agencies that need to be contacted, also depending on age...determines the response, amount of units dispatched, time consumed...etc etc...
a 15 year old bratty ass kid will "runaway" once a week in alot of cases...no matter how many "come to jesus" meetings you have |
|
Out of curiosity.........would the response be any different if the child was reported as missing and the parent was a high value target?
Fortunaly, I don't think I ever had a missing child in my military police days. The nearest I can recall were adults involved in custody battles, but the pattern was the same, my people knew where to look with the Sheriff present. But once as a teen, I sent my parents into a panic because they came home from a day trip, found my kid brother outside and locked out of the house, and me nowhere to be seen. It was assumed I went off to scouts and never came home. My father, a general, went out looking for me along the pathway and when he couldn't find me, he was assuming that "they had kidnapped his child".....although I never found out who he considered "they". As it was, my mother did some back thinking, found out from my brother that I was never seen going off to scouts, ....... and I was dead asleep from my 1st day on swim team in my room. Happy Ending for me. But back to the question: does the response change if the parent is considered a high value target? ______________________________________________________________ (""This time hair, next time head."....they made me write this, Uncle Walker, I am not afraid."––Rex, the Phantom's ward, kidnapped, (w,stte), "The Phantom") |
|
Quoted:
BC resources are limited, cities are huge and most of the time they are at a friend's. Or, like last week, they are upstairs asleep in their bed and awesome parent #1 didn't even bother to look in their room before jumping on 9 11. seriously though, what should they do. We send out a TCIC/NCIC bullet and to every car working at that time. not really sure what else can be expected. In addition, if they ran away once, what's to say they stay put when you bring them back? Most of the ones I have taken seem to return home prior to getting them entered as a runaway, so we have to go back to the house and talk to them. It really doesn't help that it seems like a total waste of paperwork to bother filing runaway charges on them, because it seems the next week, we are back at the same house, on the same call. Even if we take them to juvenile detention, they are out a day or two later. One mother I dealt with hadn't seen her son for three days after he went out with friends, called to report him "missing", and gave us a possible area where he was, a couple counties away. He was located a few hours later, when mom was called back and told where she could pick him up, "Well, just take him to jail". The Sgt. from the other agency had to threaten to put a warrant out for her arrest for abandonment before she would come and pick him up
|
|
What's a high value target? Are we talking about perps or just rich people?
I have lots of rich people in my area, they all get the same treatment. We don't have resources for searching the streets for a kid who most likely is in some other kid's house. I have on several occasions found out what house the kid was at, drown over there, threaten the other kid and parents with harboring a runaway (class A here) and then taken said runaway home. But it seems like rarely do the parents have any idea where the kid is and sadly in most cases, don't seem inclined to look themselves. |
|
Quoted:
Quoted:
You also have to quantify juvenile, it varies state to state and statute to statute. +1 In South Carolina a 17 year old CAN NOT be a run-a-way. However, when they decide to come home, the parent CAN NOT refuse to let them come home. It's a Dependant/Neglected -vs- Delinquent issue concerning 17 and older -vs- under 17, as defined by law. At least that's the way it was years ago when I worked LEO there... it's still the same. you can leave home at 17 if you want, but your parents can't make you leave home until your 18. i try my best to do everything i can to locate presumed runaway teenagers, but 99 times out of 100, they're just spending the night with the boyfriend their daddy doesn't like or drinking beer with their buddies. adding to that, most of the time the parents aren't sure where or when they were last seen and have no clue who their child's friends are or where they hang out. parents need to be more proactive, instead of expecting law enforcement to be their backup babysitter. |
|
That and to give you an idea....
I worked teletyped today from 1400 to 1800....I entered 1 runaway and cleared 2 into TLETS/NLETS. If I sat at teletype for a full 12 on some days I am liable to enter and or clear upwards of 10 in that 12 hours. Now....keep in mind our department has about 1000 calls for service in 24 hours on average. Manpower is so bad that even now we have trouble running calls and some sit for a while. No way could we spend time looking in a city of 120k people for one kid that ran away. Critical missing a different story. We will send anyone we have to go to look for that. But 15 yo Johnny who got mad cause he was told to clean his room...... |
|
we have 2 categories, missing person endangered (High priority call, who is either a young child or some other way "Endangered") and regular missing person/runaway....We do not spend much time with runaways, its a quick report and they are entered into LEDS/NCIC as a missing person so if they are contacted by LE they are taken into protective custody.....the problem with runaways is they do it all the time, I wish I could spend more time on them and really make a difference, but that aint realistic....most of the kids I take as runaways do it every week....hell just the other night I took a missing person report, only to find he was still in the system as missing, mom never called him in as found to remove him........I have heard in some states they are taken to the juvie dept. and held till parents can come, that at least might scare them into not wanting to do it again....in Oregon, we either take em to parents house or have parents come get them.
The real issue, at least for chronic runners, is the parents failure to suepervise or discipline the child....When I grew up I never ran away, cuz I knew my parents would whoop my butt!! If parents, parented, they wouldn't call the police to do it for them! |
|
Quoted:
we have 2 categories, missing person endangered (High priority call, who is either a young child or some other way "Endangered") and regular missing person/runaway....We do not spend much time with runaways, its a quick report and they are entered into LEDS/NCIC as a missing person so if they are contacted by LE they are taken into protective custody.....the problem with runaways is they do it all the time, I wish I could spend more time on them and really make a difference, but that aint realistic....most of the kids I take as runaways do it every week....hell just the other night I took a missing person report, only to find he was still in the system as missing, mom never called him in as found to remove him........I have heard in some states they are taken to the juvie dept. and held till parents can come, that at least might scare them into not wanting to do it again....in Oregon, we either take em to parents house or have parents come get them. The real issue, at least for chronic runners, is the parents failure to suepervise or discipline the child....When I grew up I never ran away, cuz I knew my parents would whoop my butt!! If parents, parented, they wouldn't call the police to do it for them! Yep. I've entered and cleared some kids twice in a shift. You get to a point you know their full name, DOB, SMT's, social and parents names and addresses by heart. Not to mention you get a report on one and usually you are guaranteed to get a report on 2 or 3 others. Plus the parents that use that a leverage tool...they know where their kids are but know that if htey say no I don't know where they are we take the report ande nter them. The whole time they are at their friends house and won't come home.... |
|
Quoted: Yep. I've entered and cleared some kids twice in a shift. You get to a point you know their full name, DOB, SMT's, social and parents names and addresses by heart. Not to mention you get a report on one and usually you are guaranteed to get a report on 2 or 3 others. Plus the parents that use that a leverage tool...they know where their kids are but know that if htey say no I don't know where they are we take the report ande nter them. The whole time they are at their friends house and won't come home.... All of this. |