Drug Endangered Children Tracking System October 2014 Voiceover: Beat Intro 00:00 This is the Beat—a podcast series that keeps you in the know about the latest community policing topics facing our nation. Nazmia Comrie 00:08 Hello and welcome. My name Nazmia Comrie, and on behalf of the COPS Office, I would like to introduce Executive Director Jade Woodard. Mrs. Woodard is the Executive Director for the Colorado Alliance for Drug Endangered Children, hereafter referred to as Colorado DEC, in Denver, Colorado. Today, Mrs. Woodard is here with us to discuss drug endangered children and the COPS funded project Drug Endangered Children Tracking System, hereafter referred to as DECSYS. Mrs. Woodard, why is it so important to focus on drug endangered children? Jade Woodard 00:39 Thank you, Ms. Comrie. Drug endangered children are our future, because these are children that are at risk of severe abuse and neglect and that, in history and throughout time, have not been necessarily been the priority. You know, we talk about drug enforcement and we talk about the efforts to really rid our communities of substances, we’ve always focused on really the more law enforcement and criminal justice side of things. As a result, at times, we’ve lost focus on the children. And really, these children are the silent victims. They’re the innocents that are lost in the home, in the family, when drugs take over. So it’s really important that we focus on drug endangered children because they’re young children, they’re in homes, they're at risk, they’re in danger, and we’ve historically overlooked them. Nazmia 01:27 Great. So please tell us about DECSYS and why it is such a vital tool for law enforcement and child welfare. Jade 01:33 DECSYS is a tool for communication between law enforcement and child welfare. It is the notification system that allows law enforcement to enter information on drug-related arrests and share that with the child welfare system. It therefore creates this automated, reliable, predictable, very consistent method of communication or form of communication between these two systems that both have a very strong responsibility for protecting children and protecting our communities. By using this system, we’re able to really ensure that this is replicable, it’s scalable, and that, at the end of the day, the job of law enforcement can be done in protecting our communities and enforcing the laws and also help to really bring that focus back to children and families and what else is happening when you’re enforcing for drugs and who are those other victims and how do we really get in there and identify those victims and give them the needed services. And DECSYS is a tool that can do that. It is quick, it is easy, and it makes such a difference in terms of actually identifying children. Nazmia 02:43 Great. What kinds of data and results are you finding with DECSYS? Jade 02:48 I think the most important thing that we’ve found with DECSYS is that as law enforcement is making arrests and entering them into the system, they are only identifying about 30 percent of the children that are associated with the arrest by being on scene. And so what that means is that, truly, 70 percent of children that we’ve identified through our DECSYS tool were not on scene at the time of the arrest and likely would not have been identified by law enforcement through their traditional means. So what DECSYS has allowed us to do is to identify that these are kids that are at risk or in danger, that are associated with the suspect of a drug arrest, and that are in need of—at least of an assessment and potentially some services and support from the child welfare system. The way that we're able to find these children is that law enforcement enters the case into the system and that notification is shared with the child welfare system, who is then able to go in and look and see if they have history on these families, if they have any sort of prior relationships, if they are currently working with any of these families. And oftentimes, they're finding that many of the arrests that they're making, many of the children that they are identifying, have some sort of a history with the child welfare system, and this is really valuable, valuable information for the child welfare system in making their determinations, in doing their assessments, and truly in protecting children. Nazmia 04:12 What advice do you have for states that do not have a DECSYS system or a DEC alliance? Jade 04:18 I would say, you know, the DECSYS system and a DEC alliance really go hand in hand. But really, those are formal infrastructures for what can be done on a somewhat informal basis. Obviously, we support the formal infrastructure because we are an alliance, and we have this tool, and we’ve learned so much by doing so. But states that don’t have that currently can certainly reach out and try and formalize. But it’s also, really, it comes down to collaboration. It comes down to information sharing and really, at our core, knowing that we share values of protecting children and protecting our communities and living in safe communities. So working together, whether it’s law enforcement and child welfare or other systems that might be involved—probation, parole, the judicial system, the treatment system—really trying to remember to constantly be taking a step back and looking at what are the goals that we all share. And quite often, that’s keeping kids safe and living in healthy and safe communities. So regardless of whether you have a DEC alliance or the DECSYS system, you’re capable of working together on behalf of children and collaborating and sharing information and sharing values to make sure that we're able to really grow together so our communities can thrive. Nazmia 05:37 Thank you for providing us with your expertise and time today. Voiceover: Beat Exit 05:43 The Beat was brought to you by the United States Department of Justice, COPS Office. The COPS Office helps to keep our nation’s communities safe by giving grants to law enforcement agencies, developing community policing publications, developing partnerships, and solving problems. Voiceover: Disclaimer 05:59 The opinions contained herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or polices of the U.S. Department of Justice. References to specific agencies, companies, products, or services should not be considered an endorsement by the authors or the U.S. Department of Justice. Rather, the references are illustrations to supplement discussion of the issues.