When Child Protective Services Gets It Wrong
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Slate
3.9 • 1.1K Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2022
⏱️ 26 minutes
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Summary
An investigation into child welfare agencies around the country uncovered that the vast majority of searches of home environments happen without anything like a warrant, increasing the stress for parents as well as the children whose welfare is supposed to be being protected.
Guest: Eli Hager, ProPublica reporter covering issues affecting children and teens in the Southwest.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | As soon as we got on the line, I asked Eli Hager, he's a reporter over at ProPublica, |
| 0:11.5 | to click on this video. |
| 0:13.7 | When was this video shot? |
| 0:15.2 | In the early morning hours of February 8th, 2019. |
| 0:21.7 | This is tape Eli obtained from a source, a woman named Ranisha Ferguson. |
| 0:28.4 | Watching, you can see exactly what happened when police showed up at Ranisha Ferguson's |
| 0:32.7 | door, jolting her out of bed. |
| 0:38.8 | And what were the allegations against her on this February night? |
| 0:44.0 | Somebody had called saying that one of her sons had a bruise and a cut under his eye. |
| 0:51.6 | The police tell her they've got a court order to remove two of her children from her care. |
| 0:56.4 | They don't have no order with them, so they ain't coming in here, and you didn't tell |
| 0:59.8 | you off of the stage when I sat trying to push his way into my house. |
| 1:02.7 | They did not, according to our review of records, have any court order, but they said they |
| 1:07.7 | did. |
| 1:08.7 | So they were lying. |
| 1:09.7 | That is our understanding. |
| 1:10.7 | Let's see if you're supposed to. |
| 1:11.7 | You know that, Mr. Supervisor. |
| 1:12.7 | Yeah, let's see that order. |
| 1:16.2 | How does the video end? |
| 1:17.7 | Well, at one point, one of the officers kind of pushes his foot into her doorway and then |
| 1:24.4 | knocks the phone out of her hand. |
... |
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