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Monday, July 20, 2009

Crime Child Protective Services Needs Some Protecting of Its Own

Posted by Unpaid Intern on Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 4:11 PM

Post by news intern Alexander P. Brown

According to a recently released police report, any trouble getting through the local branch of the Washington Department of Health and Social Services (DSHS) can probably be blamed on a single caller.

An employee of the Children’s Administration division (which includes Child Protective Services) at the Lower Queen Anne DSHS office has reported an increasing amount of harassing phone calls, apparently from one person. The report states that the woman making these phone calls is a former client of DSHS and has been calling 20 to 50 times daily, which the complainant explains "tie up the law enforcement child intake line." These calls vary from hanging up on operators to connecting CPS to other agencies such as the Department of Family Services in Los Angeles County, CA.

The latest incident described in the police report occurred on Monday, July 13, when the caller claimed to be from the “American Family for Rights” and said that she wanted to “eliminate CPS.” The woman also made references to the movie Death Wish (in which a vigilante brutally murders those responsible for the loss of his family) and a similar movie where a “serial killer kills social workers”. Later in the call, she further detailed that “pre-paid phones can be made into bombs to kill social workers… All social workers should receive Anthrax in the mail so they would all die… wouldn’t that be great?”

Comments (15) RSS

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The suspect has been convicted previously of harassment and was released from jail this June, the police report says. Unfortunately, identifying the caller has hit a snag because the intake lines do not have caller ID.

These two sentences seem a bit contradictory. Has the caller been identified or not and if not how would their criminal record be known?

It seems though that even without caller ID the phone company would have these records.

Posted by giffy on July 20, 2009 at 4:22 PM

Sounds like she's on the fast-track to getting her kids back.

Posted by Dougsf on July 20, 2009 at 4:22 PM

@2: Yep, a winning strategy all right.

Posted by Eric from Boulder on July 20, 2009 at 4:27 PM

Um, can't these Keystone Kops get a subpoena for the phone records for the line and see who's calling it?

Posted by Am I an idiot or are the cops on this case? on July 20, 2009 at 4:31 PM

Um, can't these Keystone Kops get a subpoena for the phone records for the line and see who's calling it?

Posted by Am I an idiot or are the cops on this case? on July 20, 2009 at 4:31 PM

Server fail!

Posted by I am an idiot. on July 20, 2009 at 4:32 PM

At least they're not strangling seagulls like the cops are ...

Posted by Will in Seattle

on July 20, 2009 at 4:36 PM

You might not even need a subpoena. Most phone companies will provide you your own call records if you ask for them as long as you are the their customer. The police need something more than just a please to get your records but I don't know of any phone companies that wouldn't do this.

Posted by anonanonanon on July 20, 2009 at 4:39 PM

@ 1

Sorry if the language was muddled in that. To clear it up, the police have a suspect in mind who has recently gotten out of jail for harassment. However, police cannot identify the suspect as the caller due to the intake line not having caller ID.

-APB

Posted by Unpaid Intern on July 20, 2009 at 4:47 PM

Am I right in understanding that she is a person who has had her children taken away by the state? You call that a "client"?

Posted by Pex on July 20, 2009 at 5:00 PM