{"id":284,"date":"2007-12-09T12:06:22","date_gmt":"2007-12-09T19:06:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2007\/12\/09\/joint-investigation-protocols\/"},"modified":"2007-12-11T10:53:56","modified_gmt":"2007-12-11T17:53:56","slug":"joint-investigation-protocols","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/2007\/12\/joint-investigation-protocols\/","title":{"rendered":"joint investigation protocols"},"content":{"rendered":"

DSS & Law Enforcement Joint Investigation Protocols\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

We are a nation and culture of laws. <\/span>Laws provide the means that protect us from each other and from the state. <\/span>When it comes to protection from other people, when our personal safety is threatened, we can act in self defense. <\/span>For lesser degrees of protection not rising to the level of personal safety, we have civil legal remedies available to us through the courts. <\/span>Any citizen can freely use these mechanisms for protection when necessary. <\/span><\/p>\n

The state, however, is not a citizen with the same rights as everyone else. <\/span>Citizens cannot protect themselves from the state in the same way they protect themselves from other citizens. <\/span>To be clear, when I say the \u201cstate,\u201d I mean all government entities \u2013 law enforcement agencies, ministerial and executive bodies, legislative bodies, regulatory agencies, public health, public schools, etc., <\/span>i.e. any group funded directly or indirectly through taxation or public assessments.<\/p>\n

American citizens protect themselves from the state with the set of laws that originate in the Constitution. <\/span>Short of revolution, respect for the Constitution is all we citizens have to protect us from excessive state intervention in our lives. <\/span>That is why our public servants swear an oath to defend and protect the Constitution when they take office. <\/span>That is why all of our legislation and regulation is tested to see if it\u2019s \u201cconstitutional.\u201d <\/span>We don\u2019t care about official promises to protect us directly. <\/span>We want a promise to protect the law that protects us. <\/span>Law is far less fickle than personal promises.<\/p>\n

This is important stuff. <\/span>Large groups of very educated people argue about the fine details of these matters in deliberative chambers all over our country every day. <\/span>As an industry, if you combine the legal system, its practitioners, the court systems, and all the branches of federal, state, county and local governments, this is by far the biggest industry in America. <\/span>Nothing else comes close. <\/span>The decisions reached by these bodies become statutes, ordinances, covenants, case precedents, and regulations, that will control each of us in countless ways. <\/span>It would take multiple life times just to read through, let alone fully comprehend, all of the laws that control Americans.<\/p>\n

Americans carry this overhead burden because, as onerous as it is and as subject to corruption and manipulation as it is, it\u2019s still the best system of government on the planet. <\/span>All others provide less justice and fewer opportunities for citizens. <\/span>History is full of failed utopian systems, many that still cling to their empty promises even after failing. <\/span>In my lifetime alone, several failed spectacularly. <\/span>Not America.<\/p>\n

On top of this foundation, consider the multiple government entities that work in Elbert County. <\/span>Law enforcement agencies such as the Elbert County Sheriff\u2019s department police unincorporated areas of the county. <\/span>Kiowa and Elizabeth police departments exercise police power within their town limits. <\/span>State health and welfare services operate across the county. <\/span>Many public agencies administer and spend public money in Elbert County from local, state and federal sources in the performance of their various functions. <\/span><\/p>\n

Turning to law enforcement, the 4th<\/sup> Amendment to the Constitution protects citizens from unreasonable searches and seizures by law enforcement. <\/span>Law enforcement agents exercise great care to operate within the Constitution and case law from many 4th<\/sup> Amendment cases that defined \u201creasonable\u201d and \u201cunreasonable\u201d searches and seizures. <\/span>Evidence collected in an \u201cunreasonable\u201d search or seizure will be thrown out of court because it violates the 4th<\/sup> Amendment. <\/span>Without admissible evidence, an accused criminal cannot be proved guilty beyond a reasonable doubt at trial. <\/span>Criminals go free when the 4th<\/sup> Amendment is violated by law enforcement. <\/span><\/p>\n

The standard of proof in criminal prosecutions is \u201cbeyond a reasonable doubt\u201d or \u201cbrd.\u201d <\/span>And before a crime can be charged, a statute must exist prohibiting that criminal behavior. <\/span>There are no abstract crimes. <\/span>Sections 9 and 10 of the Constitution prohibit the passage of \u201cex post facto\u201d laws. <\/span>When a crime is suspected, law enforcement collects evidence to prove the elements of the crime as written in statute. <\/span><\/p>\n

In civil, non-criminal trials, where there is no risk of incarceration, the standard of proof is a \u201cpreponderance of the evidence.\u201d <\/span>In rough numerical terms, “brd” means that a jury is 95% sure that a fact of evidence is true. <\/span>But a “preponderance of evidence” means that the trier of fact need only be 51% certain of the truth of the matter. <\/span>The lower civil standard of proof translates to less rigorous, more liberal, rules of evidence. <\/span>Things that would be inadmissible in a criminal trial because of 4th<\/sup> Amendment problems may well be admissible in a civil trial. <\/span>Where a criminal conviction may fail for a given crime, a civil trial may succeed. <\/span>Certainly everyone remembers OJ.<\/p>\n

Criminal and civil actions, their respective evidentiary requirements, and their different burdens of proof, are kept separate in courts. <\/span>The state prosecutes crimes and citizens bring civil actions.<\/p>\n

Now, right next to the set of Colorado Revised Statutes that define the \u201cCriminal Code\u201d for the state \u2013 the laws that require proof beyond a reasonable doubt that the state prosecutes when crimes are committed, another set of statutes exists called the \u201cChildren\u2019s Code.\u201d <\/span>Title 18 of Colorado Revised Statutes is the Criminal Code, Title 19 is the Children\u2019s Code.<\/p>\n

Since children are generally not able to protect themselves from adults, the Title 19 laws tilt in their favor by lowering the bars for evidence and proof. <\/span>A finding of child abuse must only be supported by a preponderance of the evidence \u2013 the civil standard. <\/span>By itself, this makes perfect sense. <\/span><\/p>\n

In practice, however, what often happens is that a report of suspected child abuse will result in a social worker showing up at a home where a child lives, accompanied by a law enforcement officer. <\/span>Both have duties to uphold statutes in their areas of expertise. <\/span>Law enforcement has a primary duty to uphold and investigate criminal statutes. <\/span>Social services investigators have a primary duty to uphold the children\u2019s code statutes. <\/span>But while there is only one scene being investigated, and one set of potential perpetrators under state scrutiny, there are two evidentiary standards simultaneously in operation by state actors who both have authority to investigate the scene. <\/span><\/p>\n

In effect, social services investigators may discover evidence and make conclusions with ramifications about taking children into protective custody from evidence that would be more difficult for law enforcement to legally obtain and use under the 4th<\/sup> Amendment. <\/span>As a result, law enforcement may gain informal access to a broader scope of evidence than normal <\/span>4th<\/sup> Amendment search standards would permit.<\/p>\n

Taking a step back for a moment, child abuse raises an emotional reaction in most people. <\/span>In the midst of this reaction one might think it\u2019s Ok to blur the lines of investigation. <\/span>One might think child abusers deserve all the punishment the state can deliver, and let\u2019s not look too closely at the ingredients of this sausage.<\/p>\n

Well, the state has acknowledged this problem \u2013 that, without protocols in place, joint investigations between agencies with disparate rules of engagement and disparate purposes could give rise to situations that might compromise citizen\u2019s constitutional rights, that might compromise the quality of evidence gathering and assessments of scenes under investigation, that might lead to on-scene chain-of-command conflicts between investigators from different agencies, etc. <\/span>As a result, law enforcement agencies and social services agencies have a duty in Colorado to develop written agreements to govern their cooperation on joint investigations. <\/span>Section 7.202.51 of the Colorado Code of Regulations<\/a> requires these agencies in each county to implement such agreements.<\/p>\n

It is in everyone\u2019s best interest that Elbert County\u2019s law enforcement and social services agencies establish and codify their written protocols for joint investigations now, without further delay.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

DSS & Law Enforcement Joint Investigation Protocols\u00a0 We are a nation and culture of laws. Laws provide the means that protect us from each other and from the state. When it comes to protection from other people, when our personal safety is threatened, we can act in self defense. For lesser degrees of protection not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[14,4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-child-protection","7":"category-elbert-county-sheriff","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/284\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/elbertcounty.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}