Grant targets kids who live with meth abusers
A Spokane Valley police officer last year responded to an apartment complex to investigate a call about an unconscious mother.
He found a 4-year-old child running around the parking lot and an infant screaming in a crib. The mother, who had taken methamphetamine, was unconscious, Spokane County Sheriff’s Lt. Chan Bailey said.
“We didn’t do as good a job as maybe we should have of taking those kids out of those environments. This is the thing we want to do,” Bailey said.
Sheriff Mark Sterk and Spokane Police Deputy Chief Al Odenthal announced the continuation of a federal Drug Endangered Children grant Tuesday that will pay for a detective for each agency to develop cases against parents or guardians who put children at risk.
Last year alone, local law enforcement and state case workers pulled 100 children out of Spokane County homes where their parents were making, dealing or using drugs, Bailey said.
“Children are being held hostage in a drug environment,” Sterk said. “We want to be able to establish probable cause for arrests … so we don’t have another generation lost to the drug culture.”
Over the last few years, officers were finding children in anywhere from half to 60 percent of homes containing methamphetamine labs.
“We found kids exhibiting symptoms of meth exposure,” Odenthal said. “They are ingesting these drugs inadvertently.”
The number of meth labs has dropped, but “addiction rates are as high as they ever have been,” he said.
Odenthal said officers often find drug houses with no electricity or water.
This is the third year the grant has been awarded. In previous years, Odenthal said, the city gave its portion to social services that provide care for the children.
The latest grant will provide just over $100,000 for each agency to pay for the salary and benefits of a detective. Each department has transferred a veteran detective to the program, which allowed the city to hire back one of the officers lost to budget cuts, Odenthal said.
The city’s detective is Jeff Barrington and the county’s detective is Russ Dowdy.
Bailey meets once a month with other partners in the Drug Endangered Children program. They include law enforcement, prosecutors, Child Protective Services, Lutheran Community Services, and Partners With Families and Children, sheriff’s spokesman Cpl. Dave Reagan said.
Sterk said the grant will help law enforcement hold abusive parents accountable.
“If you are holding children hostage in a drug environment, we are coming after you,” Sterk said. “We are no longer going to allow this in the county.”