NCJ Number
149337
Date Published
1989
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This video and accompanying instructional guide instruct police officers in Federal guidelines for handling juvenile status offenders and delinquents under the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Act.
Abstract
The video uses dramatizations and narration to illustrate and present standards for the police handling of juvenile status offenders and juvenile delinquents. The dramatization for the handling of a status offender involves a highway patrol officer's encounter with a young female hitchhiker, who, through a computer check, was found to be a missing person (runaway). The girl is ushered to the patrol car without handcuffs and taken to the station, where the officer calls her parents. There is no secure detention or fingerprinting. Guidelines for police handling of status offenders include holding in an unlocked area; no handcuffing to a stationary object; holding only until a parent, guardian, or legal authority arrives at the station; no conversion of a holding room into a residential quarters; continuous visual supervision; and documentation of any reasons for a violation of the foregoing standards. The dramatization of the handling of a suspected juvenile delinquent is occasioned by a call about a break-in at a residence. In finding a juvenile backing his car from the residence named in the dispatch, the officer blocks the car's path and then issues commands to the suspect from a secure area with gun drawn. With the suspect prostrate on the ground, one officer checks the car before the other officer comes forward to handcuff the suspect while the second officer checks the residence. The suspect is transported to the police station in a secure police van. At the station, Federal standards require separation of the juvenile from the sight and sound of adult inmates, secure custody for no longer than 6 hours, visual checks of the suspect every 30 minutes, and proper record maintenance. The instructional guide outlines these procedures.