The Legislative body of New York this week has adopted the bill to ban anonymous complaints against the state hot line of cruel treatment of children. When Governor Katiel signs the legislation, the New York now will have to give their name and contact information if they want to make the charge that someone can neglect a child.
This dramatic change of law occurs after a year and a half Investigation PROPUBLICA They showed how the hotline was armed with jealous former, malicious hosts and others who endlessly called for unreasonable charges. Even if the subscriber left his name or no details, and even if the same statement was repeatedly investigated and found that he was unfounded, he automatically caused an invasive search at the accused’s house and often a search for children.
We talked in detail that one of the Brooklyn mothers, which searched the apartment dozens of times – police officers and officers for the protection of children who had never had a warrant and often pointed to her doors after the north – everything because the angry former acquaintance anonymously called the hot line about it. She was never found that it was by no means treated with children.
According to federal statistics, 96% of anonymous calls for hot lines of brutal children are considered groundless after the investigation. Among all allegations of severe children or neglect, including non -insignificances, 83% are ultimately considered unfounded.
In New York, more than 4,000 children were experiencing an investigation into child protection services each year as a result of anonymous calls.
The legislation accepted for everyone is “win-win for everyone,” said the Senator of the Democratic State Jabari Brisport, a sponsor of the bill. Not only will it protect the victims of domestic violence who may have an abusive current or former partner who used an anonymous reporting system to pursue them or affect the dispute about the care, it will also help themselves, said Brisport. “They are already so thin,” he said. “By reducing the number of these false complaints, we can let them do their jobs better.”
“But the fact that false reports make such an effective persecution method is a symptom of deeper questions in how the CPS works,” the brysport added, referring to how to search at home and investigations that result from these calls, often turn the lives of families. They are especially affected that black parents affect, and they may feel helplessly unable to comfort their children through a terrible and opaque process that can lead to their division with mom and dad.
US civil rights committee last year published a report it quoted Journalism PROPUBLICA On these issues, they called on New York to cancel anonymous reporting. Popublica’s articles were also distributed among legislators and legislative workers in Albani, both last year and this spring.
California and Texas also adopted the legislation on anonymous reporting. Several other states are considering similar bills.
The new New York law will support the confidentiality of the subscribers on the hotline of cruel treatment of children, but not their anonymity. This means that if someone thinks that a family member, neighbor or colleague harms the child, and they call him, they can still be sure that the state does not reveal their identity allegedly and publicly. Calling, you will just have to provide their name and contact information so that the affairs officers can monitor, partly to make sure that they have no motive for committing harmful charges, and so that the affairs officers could collect more information from the subscriber to conduct a more informed investigation.
If they refuse to identify themselves, the hotline officers will refuse to go through the tip to the children’s security services. But the bill added an amendment, which states that if the subscriber does not want to leave his name, they can still talk to the ruler, who will then explain to them that if they come down their name, it will remain confidential; that intentionally compose a false report illegally; And these issues related to children in need can also be resolved through housing, food and other services. Contact information for such services will be provided.
The new law will not affect the mandatory reporters of child abuse, such as teachers and police officers who were no longer anonymous.
Chris Gotlib, Director of the News Protection Clinic of the New York Security Family, helped the pastor of the legislation on its adoption. She said that when she had previously arose in Olbani – and told how the agents for the protection of children looking for families without a warrant, could be very injured for both parents and children – she was often met with empty views. But then the propublica report “helped change the conversation,” she said, and more importantly, the parents themselves, many of them are black and Latin American and led by the community organizer Joyce McMilanHe started holding regular actions on the steps of the legislative body and testimony at the hearings.
Actually the parents fell The first of a kind of lawsuit in the classroom Complex warranty security services are looking for their homes as unconstitutional. New York disputes the lawsuit, but the city administration on children’s services stated that it seeks to solve children’s safety problems while respecting the rights of families.
In recent statements, propublica ACS said state legislation required to fully investigate and seek to assess the house every time it receives a report on harsh children from the state, regardless of the original source of this report. But the press secretary said the agency supports an anonymous reporting reform in terms that the protection of children in danger should also be preserved.
One of the plaintiffs in the class in the classroom, Shawon Harmington, praised New York’s legislators for canceling anonymous reporting once and for all.
The mother of the royal six years claims that someone has complained for her every few months for a decade, knowing that the simple fact of the call would lead to hubs that will knock on her door; Threaten that they will call the police unless they miss them; Find her refrigerator, cabinets, cabinets and bed while her children looked; And then get rid of the search and question them. She said that the content of the hotline’s reports always sounded familiar, obviously from the same person, but that it never made significance.
In a lawsuit, she claimed that the complaints were a probable man who abused her. He could call every day, and they don’t care who -they are sent.
Her children were injured by the sound of a knock on the door, she said.
“I have no contact with him otherwise, only through ACS,” said Hermington, citing his rapist.
