CHILD ABUSE SERVICES TEAM (CAST)

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N-2018-089 The police officer will be responsible for coordinating his or her criminal investigation with the initial assessment interview by the emergency response worker. The objective is to minimize the number of interviews the child victim endures without negatively impacting the criminal investigation. In addition, the police officer shares with the responding social worker a responsibility for insuring that the child is protected. The police officer is responsible for deciding whether a child should be taken into protective custody under the authority of W & I Code Section 306 (b) (effective January, 1989). Ideally, when malting a decision to take the child into protective custody, a consensus should be reached between the officer and the responding social worker. If the officer has decided to place the child in protective custody, arrangements must be made to transport the child to the Child Protective Facility. If a police officer responds to an initial referral unaccompanied by an emergency response worker and makes a decision not to place the victim in protective custody, he or she will immediately advise the Child Abuse Registry in compliance with departmental procedures and legal requirements. INTERVIEW SITE An assessment should be made by the police officer concerning the site of the joint interview. Every effort should be made to conduct the interview at a site likely to minimize the trauma to the child victim. Depending upon the urgency of the situation and upon the necessity for protection of the child, every effort should be made to utilize the CAST interview room for the interviews. Following the initial contact interview, if the circumstances indicate that an additional detailed interview should be conducted, every effort should be made to schedule the interview at CAST. The responsible officer will call the facility to establish the date and time. When a criminal investigation is in progress, the police officer will cooperate with the social workers investigating dependency to coordinate the interview of the child victim. The police agency will share information obtained from the interviews with the Child Protective Agencies involved, provided sharing the information will not interfere with the criminal investigation. Due to the complicated nature of these investigations, each law enforcement agency should consider using a child abuse law enforcement specialist during the initial response of a reported child abuse. When a child abuse law enforcement spe .alist r„ ..ot available, *he . spond;ng ;ffce, should be ,,...,.,uraged fo ufiliz„ the expertise of the social services representative if one is present. The assigned officer will coordinate and participate in the assessment and interview of the victim(s) with the emergency response social worker.