[Newshawk note: This story was onthe front page of today's LA Times. Are
they trying to tell us something?]

BOY, 3, SHOWS POLICE FATHER'S MARIJUANA

OXNARDHailing him as a hero, Oxnard police said Wednesday that they have
awarded a special junior officer badge to a 3yearold boy for helping them
arrest his father on charges of marijuana possession. Andafter spending
the night in the Ventura County Jail and enrolling Wednesday afternoon in a
drug treatment programthe boy's father said he agreed that his son had
done the right thing.

"I'm glad he did it," Keith Wallace said in a brief interview outside his
west Ventura home. It's a very humbling experience to be busted by your own
flesh and blood, he said. "It makes you want to stop using drugs. It gives
you the definite desire to stop."

The child's mother, however, was not in such a positive mood. Described as
extremely angry when first contacted by police, she was in tears Wednesday
afternoon. "I can't take any more of this," she said.

Police would not identify the child because of his age, and his parents
also refused to, but the police made it clear they see him as a new poster
child of sorts for the local narcotics squad.

"In about 20 years, we may interview him for a job," department spokesman
David Keith said.

Wallace, 25, was already in trouble when his son got into the act. Oxnard
Police Officers Mike Marostica and Sergio Figueroa had pulled Wallace over
about 6:40 p.m. Tuesday, saying that they clocked him driving 78 mph in a
55 mph zone. The officers said they detected the smell of alcohol, and
also noted that the young boy was not secured in a car seat. As Figueroa
administered a field sobriety test, Marostica kept an eye on the boy, who
was roaming around in the car.

That's when the child reached out the window, holding a bag containing less
than an ounce of marijuana, Keith said. He quoted the boy as telling
Marostica the dope was "bad" before handing it over.

"Kids say the darndest things," Keith said. The officers would have
searched the car under the circumstances anyway, Keith said, because they
check all vehicles before towing them to an impound yard. But he said they
still might not have found the drugs without the boy's help.

Before releasing him to the custody of his mother, they pinned him with an
Oxnard Police Department Junior Officer badge, the same ones they hand out
at antidrug sessions in local schools. It's unclear where the boy learned
that marijuana is "bad," but Keith said Oxnard officers sometimes take
their antinarcotics message into the preschools, so he might have picked
it up there. Or it could have come from the parents themselves. His
parents said they think he probably learned it from them.

"We taught him well," said Wallace, who was arrested on suspicion of
speeding, driving on a suspended license, driving under the influence of
alcohol, not having his son in a child seat, possession of marijuana and
child endangerment. He was released on his own recognizance.

Psychologists and school officials said Wednesday that they were surprised
at the boy's actions because of his age but added that police and other
antidrug activists are reaching out to younger and younger children in an
effort to catch them at their most impressionable.

Lane Jackson, a vice principal at Balboa Middle School in Ventura, said one
student or another goes to the campusassigned police officer at least once
every quarter to report drug use by their parents or another relative. In
such cases, he said, authorities must always be concerned about the danger
of parental retaliation. Beyond that, there is a broken trust that can
take years to mend, if ever.

However, he said, such an arrest can sometimes become a turning point for
the family, if the parent realizes there is a problem and tries to change
for the sake of the child.

"Apparently," Jackson said, "[Wallace] had no regrets about putting that
child in danger."

Child services officials are not called into such situations in Ventura
County unless there are obvious signs of abuse or no family member can be
located, police spokesman Keith said.

Some form of family counseling would probably be a good idea, said Robert
DeMayo, director of the Psychological and Educational Clinic at Pepperdine
University. That would help the child deal with what happened, he said,
adding that the boy is probably already confused by the mixed messages that
drugs are bad but some parents use them.

"It depends a great deal on the family's reaction," he said. "If the
family's reaction is to chastise and punish the child for violating the
family's secret, then that's likely to be damaging and very confusing to
the child."

Wallace said he holds no anger, and that he's already learned something
from his experience: "I learned that jail is not a fun place, and I don't
want to go back."

Copyright Los Angeles Times