PIERCE COUNTY, Wash. — The Fife Police Department is sounding the alarm after its officers arrested and tried to book several teenage suspects into Remann Hall Pierce County Juvenile Detention Center and the facility refused to take them.
According to a statement from Fife Police Chief Pete Fisher, it’s happened multiple times.
He says the facility told his officers they would only book for felony-level crimes.
Fisher says his department is worried about the safety of alleged victims and the family members willing to take in the suspects.
Fisher cited Fife PD policy in his address, which states that officers don’t release teens without returning them to a responsible adult or family member ... “both for the well-being of the teen as well as to protect against liability should something tragic happen to the teen after release.”
The current policy at Remann Hall, Fischer said, creates an unnecessary danger to the victims and community. He says it also creates liability exposure for officers and the communities they serve.
“This is unacceptable, and something needs to change to ensure that the families are not further victimized and the officers on the street are not placed in untenable positions,” he said in the statement.
Officers are left to figure out for themselves what to do to try and protect the victims, the teenagers and choose the option that provides the greatest mitigation for liability for themselves and the communities they serve, he said.
“It is completely unacceptable that a system meant to protect, rehabilitate, and hold juvenile offenders accountable has failed their community on numerous occasions and has pushed liability to our officers, our communities, and the citizens they are sworn to protect,” Fisher said.
Fischer went on to give an example of the fallout with a recent case.
On the morning of Oct. 24, officers with Fife PD responded to a home where a 17-year-old boy was allegedly throwing things, punching holes in the wall, and assaulting his parents. Officers arrested him for fourth-degree assault domestic violence, third-degree malicious mischief domestic violence, and interfering with the reporting of domestic violence.
The statement that Fischer released Tuesday morning continued as follows, which reads:
“This incident is a sobering reminder of the ever-widening disconnect between current policy practices conflicting with real-world realities. In the aforementioned case, officers were forced to deal with the fallout; based on the allegations of domestic violence against a family member, how could officers release the juvenile suspect back to the same family? To further highlight the disconnect, if the offender was 18 years of age or older, the same alleged conduct would result in a mandatory arrest. Mandatory arrests serve several sound public policy goals such as protecting victims and the community, as well as providing a cooling-off period with the goal of preventing further violence or harm to the victim. With these types of incidents on the rise, unfair pressure is placed on the officer forced to come up with a reasonable, safe solution to the problem. What options are available to the officer when Remann Hall refuses to take custody? Further exacerbating the issue, what happens when the officer must employ ‘use of force’? Based on what we learned today, when an officer responds to a domestic violence assault call involving a juvenile suspect – knowing in the back of their head that Remann Hall will not book the juvenile – and the suspect resists, should the officer even attempt ‘use of force’ to take the juvenile into custody? If not, how does the officer explain this to the victim or victims? All too often officers are faced with this exact situation where the victims plead with the officer to take the suspect to jail. This presents the classic ‘no-win situation’ for the officer: take the juvenile suspect into custody only to have no available jail option and be left scrambling to figure out release options or do nothing and risk harm to the victim family members as well as accusations of failing to do their job and potential lawsuits resulting from any assault or property damage that occurs after the officer leaves because the officer did not make an arrest when they clearly had probable cause. Certainly, not all juvenile suspects should be arrested and booked into juvenile detention centers. However, there are situations, like the instant one, where the juvenile suspect should be booked. Thus, I believe it is imperative that Remann Hall adjust their intake policies to allow for the booking of all juvenile offenders arrested for any physical assault, especially those that occur against a family or household member. Finally, from my perspective, this situation is more egregious since police chiefs from around the area have met with Remann Hall officials to discuss these concerns and brainstorm solutions. To date, nothing has been done to address our concerns.”
Steve Hill with Pierce County said, “I believe Fife PD is incredibly worried about this youth and the risk he poses to his family. Pete Fisher of Fife PD is seeking an override to ensure the youth’s family is safe.”
This story is developing and will be updated shortly.