a thank you to LE and tsk tsk to them, too!

[betcsu]

a few weeks ago while i was attending a funeral, hubby stayed home from work to take care of the kids. he promised to take them to mt mission park if they cleaned their rooms. 7 YO daughter decided she wanted to go to the park first THEN clean her room. she begged - he said no. she finally said, if he wouldnt take her she'd go by herself. he thought she was bluffing.

he told her to go back to her room and clean it and then he went potty. while he was going potty, she indeed left for the park. she made it all the way to mission road and was 1/2 way between webers and the park when a cop (i wasnt here but i *think* it was a sherriff) saw her walking along side the road and stopped and talked with her, for which i say THANK YOU!!!

the officer asked my daughter where she was going and he told her she couldnt go to the park by herself. he asked her to get in his car so he could drive her home. she refused. she was scared and crying by this point and was afraid he was going to take her to jail.

while this was going on, a friend of the family happened to pass by. she pulled over to see what was going on and told the officer he knew the family and she would be glad to bring her home. she had a van full of her own children and the officer agreed, to which i say TSK TSK!!!

he didnt check this womens id. he didnt try to call my house to verify what was going on. he just let my daughter go in the van with her and he drove away. end of story.

now dont get me wrong, im grateful that my daughter made it home safely and i am truly grateful that hubby didnt get into any trouble but honestly, im SHOCKED the officer just let my daughter go in the van wihtout even checking out who the woman was.

i mean how did he know if any of those children in her van were really hers? for all he knew she may have picked them all up at the park after meeting them online. who knows...

anyway, like i said, im very glad my daughter made it home safely and that hubby didnt get into trouble but im just shocked that the officer didnt check out the lady he let my daughter go home with first. he didnt run her tags or anything.

so like my subject header says: thank you but tsk tsk.

[manoccmg]

If those are indeed the circumstances surrounding the officer/deputies encounter with your daughter than by all means you have a responsibility to call the Sheriff's office and make a complaint, make sure your allowed to talk to a supervisor. Without being on the side of the road and not knowing the full facts I wont make a specific comments about what happened but there is a minimum duty of care/responsibility, especialy when dealing with juveniles.

[Tony]

Clearly the girl knew the woman, and there's never been any child-snatching MO ever that has a woman driving around a rural area with a van full of kids. And we're not at all clear if it was a sheriff's deputy.

Anyway, 7 year-olds walk around the city all the time unattended causing all kinds of trouble. The cops can't pick them all up or even stop them from getting in a friend's car. I imagine the officer was relieved to see the problem solved, because there wouldn't have been much he could have forced her to do. Drag her kicking and screaming into the car, cuff her, then when she couldn't (or wouldn't) give directions to her house, take her to the lockup until someone claimed her?

[Nanuk]

As Tony said, it's not hard to look at people and assess whether or not they actually know each other. I wasn't there and don't know the facts, but I don't see anything that rises to the level of a complaint, especially when we're talking about a 7 year old who can speak and object if she doesn't know this adult. It might be different if we were talking about a 2 year old but I don't see a real issue here.

[Chutney Daftcraft]

A similar incident happened to a friend a long time ago. Her son snuck out of the house, and was found by the cops.

She had child neglect charges filed against her. You got lucky.

[AAT53]

I had a niece that did something like that. A friend of my sister happened to drive by (she had her two kids with her). My niece was 6 years old and the officer asked her a few questions (Do you know this woman? What's her name? Do your mom & dad allow you to be in a car with her?, etc). She answered yes and the officer let her go with the woman.

At first my sis was pissed, but once she calmed down she realized that what the officer did was fine. Had my niece been 2 years old then it would have been a problem, but at 6 years old she was able to answer all the questions and it was pretty obvious that she knew the woman.


I think in a case like that the officer is damned if they do, damned if they don't. There are people who would let their 6/7 yr old walk to the park. Can you imagine if a police officer made a kid get in the police car and drove them home when the parents had given the kid permission to walk to the park? The parents would probably raise hell.

I'm glad your DD is ok and I'm sure she learned a valuable lesson. W[cheer2]

[KemCam2]

Why did he stop to talk to her? Because she looks (is) young and was walking alone?


If you do make a complaint make sure ahead of time they cant charge DH with anything...If you didn't already think of that... :)

[Crash]

The officer sounds like he did nothing wrong... why is it that people always complain and want to complain that the Police. I guess you wouldn't need to call them when someone steals from you... If they can't solve it you can complain. Most people I would assume just like to gripe because they have recived some sort of enforcement action against them and are looking to get back. Let them do their jobs. If your o wooried I would suggest watching you kids a little closer.

Just a thought

[KemCam2]

Crash n' burnin' his way onto the board...Ouch!

Mommies and daddies have to go potty too...and if you have a little girl, say, 7ish, whom daddy is watching, you don't necessarily want her to go into the bathroom with him...

[Crash]

Guess you could just train them better... or get an invisable fence... but what do I know. I'm not KemCam after all

[KemCam2]

you sure taint...i mean...aint... ;)

[Crash]

Thank god :)

[KemCam2]

No kidding, that would be weird...Plus, I don't think there is room enough in shannondale for 2 me's!

[cindylu]

Betcsu - I'm glad everything turned out ok.

I wish the officer would have followed the family friend to the child's home to make sure that is where they were going. That way he could have introduced himself to you and/or Dad and your daughter would have realized the officer meant no harm. Nowadays you have to watch kids.

[Nanuk]

quote:Originally posted by KemCam2

I don't think there is room enough in shannondale for 2 me's!





Sounds like a good indicator that it might be time for Slimfast! :D

[Crash]

HAAAAA haaaa ha ha ha ha ha I like this guy

[Coglehowell]

I have a 7 yr old also and I know how stubborn they can get when you tell them no and turn your back for one minute they will do everything they can to try and see how far they can get. I dont think that it is bad parenting you cant be with your kid 24/7 and you can try to teach them all you want but they go through a stage where they are going to try and do what ever they want regardless of what you say you then just have to make them responsible for there actions I tell mine all the time I am the parent but if you think you are no longer a baby and act like a big kid you better think before you act and when you act you better be prepared to take the consiquences (SP) more than ones mine has gotten a spanking or grounded for not thinking before she acted

[KemCam2]

Give it some time Crash...

People that live in glass houses...You know the rest right Nanuk? ;)