CHILDREN IN CARE — WHEREABOUTS UNKNOWN
1149. Hon NICK GOIRAN to
the minister representing the Minister for Police:
I refer to the answer to question without notice 1067
answered on 27 October 2022. Do WA police continue to search for a child in the
care of the CEO of the Department of Communities when informed by the
department that the child's status has changed from a placement type of
missing person to ''unknown—in contact''?
Hon STEPHEN DAWSON replied:
I thank the honourable member for some notice of the
question. The following information has been provided to me by the Minister for
Police.
The Western Australia Police Force advises that the terms ''missing
child'' and ''unknown—in contact'' are used by the Department of Communities and are not used
by the WA Police Force. All absconders from the care of the Department
of Child Protection and Family Services—that is an outdated name; it is
the Department of Communities—will be classed as either high risk or
low risk. If high risk, police will remain in regular contact with the
department or Crisis Care after hours, which will conduct active inquiries to
locate the child. Police resources are to be
allocated as circumstances dictate. If low risk, the WA Police Force district
operations supervisor, or the local supervisor or officer in charge,
will be responsible for reviewing the risk assessment; however, no further
police action is required. The department will be responsible for making
further inquiries to locate the child. The WA Police Force does not need to
physically sight absconders if the child returns unharmed, there are no
allegations of criminality, and the child has been sighted by departmental
staff. Investigative responsibility rests with the assigned responsible police
district.