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Officers Train To Be Foster Parents
The phone tip comes at 3 a.m. Police bust a meth lab and arrest a man and woman. Now the couple's kids are sitting in a police cruiser. Who will take care of them?
Some police officers in Bellingham, Washington are stepping up to say: "We will."
In a program that may be the first of its kind in the nation, the Bellingham Police Department is recruiting officers to become temporary foster parents for children whose parents are arrested in the middle of the night.
Across the state, after-hours placements are a nightly challenge. A shortage of foster families sometimes forces children to wait hours before state workers can find them a temporary home.
"You can spend hours on the phone trying to find a safe place for these kids," said Susie Coberly, a Bellingham police officer who recently attended a foster parenting training course. She and her husband have a 4-year-old son of their own.
"We love being parents. We have a great family," she said. "It's a good opportunity to give these kids a safe environment."
In the past, police would sometimes just take home kids they found at crime scenes. That was when both foster care and police work had fewer rules.
In the Bellingham program, police who take in foster children cannot be the same officers involved in the arrests of their parents.
"Officially it's a new concept," said Sgt. Tim Lintz of the Bellingham police. "We're still in the stage of ironing out the process."
The idea for the Bellingham police foster program developed when one officer working the night shift ran head-on into Washington's foster home shortage problem. The officer spent four hours trying to get three children whose parents had been arrested into a home.
Finally, at 1:30 a.m., he just took them to his house.
"He did not get in trouble," Lintz said. In fact, "He got total support from the department."
That officer and Lintz, head of the Bellingham Family Crimes Unit, won't be in the foster parent program because they investigate child abuse. But Lintz is attending the 18-hour training anyway, to learn more about the job.
At their first session, five prospective foster parents watched videos and discussed what to expect. They will be licensed for temporary care, 15 days or less, of children age 11 and younger.
The police department isn't paying for training time - "Budgets are tight," Lintz explained.
Trainer Sheri Rego told them the goal of foster care is to reunite children with their parents - an aim that might be hard to understand for police officers used to arresting criminals, not getting them back together with their children.
"It's all going to be really new to me," said Susie Ortiz, who researches crime patterns and trends at the Bellingham Police Department. She has no kids of her own, but was drawn in when she saw the e-mail at work about this new program.
"I thought, 'Wow, to help one kid would be a really cool thing,"' Ortiz said.
Washington state has about 6,200 foster homes for about 8,500 children who are in state care. Last year, a state court ordered the Department of Social and Health Services to stop putting children in state offices or juvenile jails when foster homes are unavailable.
State officials hope the Bellingham idea succeeds and spreads.
They plan to produce two public service announcement TV ads, featuring the Bellingham police and aimed at recruiting more foster parents - one ad will air statewide, and the other will be shown to police and sheriff's departments.
Neither national foster care groups nor police organizations could think of any other law enforcement agency with a similar program.
"This is brand-new," said Karen Jorgenson, administrator of the National Foster Parent Association. "I think it's a wonderful idea. If more groups would do the same thing, then we wouldn't have a shortage."
The phone tip comes at 3 a.m. Police bust a meth lab and arrest a man and woman. Now the couple's kids are sitting in a police cruiser. Who will take care of them?
Some police officers in Bellingham, Washington are stepping up to say: "We will."
In a program that may be the first of its kind in the nation, the Bellingham Police Department is recruiting officers to become temporary foster parents for children whose parents are arrested in the middle of the night.
Across the state, after-hours placements are a nightly challenge. A shortage of foster families sometimes forces children to wait hours before state workers can find them a temporary home.
"You can spend hours on the phone trying to find a safe place for these kids," said Susie Coberly, a Bellingham police officer who recently attended a foster parenting training course. She and her husband have a 4-year-old son of their own.
"We love being parents. We have a great family," she said. "It's a good opportunity to give these kids a safe environment."
In the past, police would sometimes just take home kids they found at crime scenes. That was when both foster care and police work had fewer rules.
In the Bellingham program, police who take in foster children cannot be the same officers involved in the arrests of their parents.
"Officially it's a new concept," said Sgt. Tim Lintz of the Bellingham police. "We're still in the stage of ironing out the process."
The idea for the Bellingham police foster program developed when one officer working the night shift ran head-on into Washington's foster home shortage problem. The officer spent four hours trying to get three children whose parents had been arrested into a home.
Finally, at 1:30 a.m., he just took them to his house.
"He did not get in trouble," Lintz said. In fact, "He got total support from the department."
That officer and Lintz, head of the Bellingham Family Crimes Unit, won't be in the foster parent program because they investigate child abuse. But Lintz is attending the 18-hour training anyway, to learn more about the job.
At their first session, five prospective foster parents watched videos and discussed what to expect. They will be licensed for temporary care, 15 days or less, of children age 11 and younger.
The police department isn't paying for training time - "Budgets are tight," Lintz explained.
Trainer Sheri Rego told them the goal of foster care is to reunite children with their parents - an aim that might be hard to understand for police officers used to arresting criminals, not getting them back together with their children.
"It's all going to be really new to me," said Susie Ortiz, who researches crime patterns and trends at the Bellingham Police Department. She has no kids of her own, but was drawn in when she saw the e-mail at work about this new program.
"I thought, 'Wow, to help one kid would be a really cool thing,"' Ortiz said.
Washington state has about 6,200 foster homes for about 8,500 children who are in state care. Last year, a state court ordered the Department of Social and Health Services to stop putting children in state offices or juvenile jails when foster homes are unavailable.
State officials hope the Bellingham idea succeeds and spreads.
They plan to produce two public service announcement TV ads, featuring the Bellingham police and aimed at recruiting more foster parents - one ad will air statewide, and the other will be shown to police and sheriff's departments.
Neither national foster care groups nor police organizations could think of any other law enforcement agency with a similar program.
"This is brand-new," said Karen Jorgenson, administrator of the National Foster Parent Association. "I think it's a wonderful idea. If more groups would do the same thing, then we wouldn't have a shortage."
