My child (12yo) searched by police

On Sunday a 12 year old boy who lives on my street stole a pack of smokes from the local 7-11 store.

The police were called and came down my street looking for the kid and happen upon my kid in my driveway. The officer makes him empty his pockets and tells him he looks like the kid that stole the smokes. Never did he attempt to contact me, I was inside the house, they were in my driveway. I was more than likely in the basement and thats why I did'nt see them.

I have limited experience with kids due to my background in military and federal LE, but I was always taught that if you search a kid, they have to have thier parent present. Can anybody enlighten me on this? My kid is really bummed out and the PD told me they dont have to contact me when they search my kid....but I disagree.

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Originally Posted by Donut Aficionado

...I was always taught that if you search a kid, they have to have thier parent present. Can anybody enlighten me on this? My kid is really bummed out and the PD told me they dont have to contact me when they search my kid....but I disagree.

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You can search a juvenile without his parent or guardian present.

When you arrest/detain a juvenile, or charge them, then yeah, their parents need to be notified.

If the cigarettes were found on your child, then yes, the P.D. would have contacted you. However, even though they didn't have to contact you, it would be good policy for them to do so, so they could have explained to you what the deal was.

To get down to brass tacks, The officer can make a search without a parent or guardian present. The only time a parent has to be present is when they are in custody and being questioned i.e. Miranda Warning/Rights. Now, We were talking about a pack of cigarettes. If I was the officer making contact with him, especially in the driveway of his house, I would have contacted the parents. To clarify about the search based on limited information, The officer could have made a pat down and possibly developed P.C. through the plain feel doctrine which could have lead to a further search. The short answer is yes but, he should have made contact in my opinion.

see, here in this county things are really f'ed up...I am a SRO, but I cannot question a kid if I am planning on arresting them for something unless I have a parent here....but if the principal or assistant principal wants to question the child I can sit in and hear the confession then make the arrest....if I see the offense take place with my own eyes or via video then I can make the arrest then call the parents.. it is really jacked up and I am trying to adjust to this b/c the other department I worked at unless it was a serious offense I did not have to have a parent present when questioning their child, just had to have another person, ie. dispatch, student worker, police officer, etc. present when I do the questioning.

This is hard to adjust to and I have already goofed on it once...oh well...sorry...we also dont have a written policy manual here either...thats also hard to adjust to... :(

I can contact any J I want...I can search any J I want without the parents present and I Admonish them right away (Miranda). Once this is done I can interview the J without the parents.....Cali is good on this...

Juveniles have no additional or different rights until they have been arrested and detained. what happens then is too long to get into but unless I want to interview/question them there is no difference in reality.

Im surprised the cop was even bothering about smokes, how do you know ti was a pack?

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Originally Posted by lesta311

To get down to brass tacks, The officer can make a search without a parent or guardian present. The only time a parent has to be present is when they are in custody and being questioned i.e. Miranda Warning/Rights.

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That must vary state to state. In Oregon you can question a kid w/o the parents being notified or present. They have to be mirandized like an adult, however.

Kids here cannot be photographed without being charged with a felony or parents' consent. I got into it with a county deputy here who took my stepson's picture without my or his mother's consent. He thought it was legal as long as he had the kid's.

Here I cannot at all question, mirandize, or even think of arresting a juvy without the parent, unless I saw them do something wrong. But the next county up where I used to work, it did not matter, I arrested, mirandized and questioned several juvys without their parents... its all in department policy and all that BS!!! It gets frustrating sometimes when I cannot arrest a juvy for assault in my school when we didn't see the assault, but the child has admitted to it, I still have to have the parent here before I can question the juvy about the incident at all.

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Originally Posted by kdm0409

Here I cannot at all question, mirandize, or even think of arresting a juvy without the parent, unless I saw them do something wrong. But the next county up where I used to work, it did not matter, I arrested, mirandized and questioned several juvys without their parents... its all in department policy and all that BS!!!

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I agree, that is total BS!!!
Departmental juvenile policy should be modeled after the state's Juvenile Justice Laws, and therefore, be consistent from county to county. You have a hard way to go there. I'm hopeful that I will get to become a juvenile officer this year, we are supposed to have one when we deal with juveniles.
The parents only have to be notified if they are charged and going to be detained.

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Originally Posted by kdm0409

Here I cannot at all question, mirandize, or even think of arresting a juvy without the parent, unless I saw them do something wrong. But the next county up where I used to work, it did not matter, I arrested, mirandized and questioned several juvys without their parents... its all in department policy and all that BS!!! It gets frustrating sometimes when I cannot arrest a juvy for assault in my school when we didn't see the assault, but the child has admitted to it, I still have to have the parent here before I can question the juvy about the incident at all.

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If it varies county to county, that sounds like policy, not law.

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Originally Posted by Retdetsgt

If it varies county to county, that sounds like policy, not law.

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it is policy. The law is that I can question, mirandize, arrest, etc without a parent, but our policy makes it a whole lot more strict and a whole lot more work as well. :mad:

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Originally Posted by Retdetsgt

That must vary state to state. In Oregon you can question a kid w/o the parents being notified or present. They have to be mirandized like an adult, however.

Kids here cannot be photographed without being charged with a felony or parents' consent. I got into it with a county deputy here who took my stepson's picture without my or his mother's consent. He thought it was legal as long as he had the kid's.

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I should have clarified, I was speaking of the exception thst affords a juvenile the right to have a parent present. We can question them and if they are over 16, they can waive the right just like an adult can waive an attorney. NC is cool when it comes to juveniles because we charge 16 year olds as adults.

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Originally Posted by lesta311

I should have clarified, I was speaking of the exception thst affords a juvenile the right to have a parent present. We can question them and if they are over 16, they can waive the right just like an adult can waive an attorney. NC is cool when it comes to juveniles because we charge 16 year olds as adults.

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In Oregon, kids under 18 are considered juveniles, but on felonies, it's not hard to remand them to adult court at 15 and over.

A juvenile doesn't have a right to a parent present at any age here. I've questioned and arrested a lot of 14 year olds for sex crimes w/o notifying parents until after the confession.

In Missouri, I can search juveniles but when I take one into custody, I have to notify Juvenile Officer ASAP and they have to be there with the parent when we question them about an offense.

Before I physically place one under arrest I do have to call the juvenile officer and have them meet me at the S.O. to do the petition and usually the parent is called to meet there as well, thats when they get served the petition

At my department, it's basically the same as kdm's. I do not need parental consent to search a juvenile. In today's society, a 12-year-old is a lot more sophisticated than when I was 12, and I wouldn't be surprised at what I might find on the kid.

Well Folks..Thanks for the education, my son read this also and feels a little better. It seems that there is no clear cut standard where this is concerned. I had prior training that differs from the policy of where I now live and work.

I met the Cop who talked to my Son a couple of days ago after he was responding to a possible burglary across the street from me, I had just gotten off of work and he told me he wished my Son had told him I was a Cop, he would have contacted me. My local P.D. does not yet have a reserve Dept. but I willl be riding with him until they finish fighting with the city council to organize one.

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Originally Posted by Terminator

You can search a juvenile without his parent or guardian present.

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Thats pretty much how it is in Missouri. Only time parents need to be present is during questioning and the juvy is a suspect. But we can question a juvy with a juvenile officer - parent or guardian doesnt have to be there.

Furthermore - you can stop and search anybody if you have a lawful reason.

in MD if the kids A suspect hes treated like A suspect...only after its been verified that hes THE suspect do we have to notify the parent that hes been arrested and that they need to come get him...that is if they are not going to be placed in secured detention by our juvenile intake officer. we automatically notify parents if a juvenile is a VICTIM of crime, but when hes the suspect its a different story. in order to release the juvenile to the parent the parent must sign a form stating that they are aware their child is being charged and will be held accountable to bring that child to court and that is all that is required.

It totally depends on what state you are in. Policy at the department can vary as well.