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Sunday, December 09, 2007

Ind. Courts - Still more on: Marion County juvenile court orders release of the juvenile court file and the much larger DCS case file in TaJanay Bailey case

Updating this ILB entry from Dec. 7th, regarding Marion County juvenile court Judge Marilyn Moores' orders last week for the release of Department of Child Services and Marion County juvenile court records in the TaJanay Bailey's case, today's Indianapolis Star has a story by Tim Evans and Jon Murray that reports:

Judge Marilyn Moores, reacting to communication gaps revealed after the death of TaJanay Bailey, will convene a meeting Monday to discuss making critical child protection information directly available to police on the street.

Police currently have no way of knowing whether children at homes where they respond to calls are involved with the Department of Child Services and need special attention.

Moores has organized the meeting of court, child welfare and police leaders to discuss the process and challenges involved in making such information available to police as they respond to domestic disputes and other incidents. * * *

Moores thinks part of the solution may be close at hand. By using a mechanism that already exists in the county's emergency response computer system, she said, it could be possible to alert police when a family has an open child welfare case.

The system used by the Metropolitan Emergency Communications Agency allows for special messages to be stored by address and called up whenever authorities are sent there.

That is used now to alert police or fire units about hazards at certain addresses, Moores said, so why not allow DCS to store messages in the computer asking officers to contact a family's case manager after any police run to the home?

Moores learned about the possibility Friday from her nephew, an Indianapolis Metropolitan Police Department officer, the judge said. In her mind, she said, only the logistics remain to be worked out.
So Friday afternoon, Moores fired off an e-mail inviting key police and DCS officials to meet with her Monday. Within an hour, several told the judge they would be there or send representatives.

Posted by Marcia Oddi on December 9, 2007 08:55 AM
Posted to Indiana Courts