PROGRAM HELPS OFFICERS SAVE CHILDREN FROM METH

When police officers bust a home methamphetamine lab, they find squalor,
dangerous chemicals and, more often than not, children, Oklahoma City
police Lt. Tommy Terhune said. . Tips offered on spotting meth labs

"Generally, when we take down a meth lab, we find signs of children
associated with the location. We might not always find the child, but
there's almost always a sign one has been there," he said.

Oklahoma is third behind Kansas and Missouri for meth labs found, according
to the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration. As officers work to fight
meth, they are becoming more aware that rescuing children is a large part
of the job.

To help officers help the children, the Drug Endangered Child program is
working to unite police, fire, the Oklahoma County district attorney's
office and the state Department of Human Services.

The program, about 1-1/2 years old, is reaching out to other metro agencies
to create a unified front against the meth epidemic.

Before the Drug Endangered Child program, when officers would find children
in a home with a meth lab, the children would be given to a relative while
police continued the investigation. Detective Chris Gayhart said those
children were often bounced right back into the same situations, exposing
them to more dangerous chemicals and apathetic guardians.

"Now those kids are immediately taken into protective custody, DHS is
called and they go to the hospital for a screening," he said. "In our
findings, a lot of the kids coming out of those labs test positive for
chemicals and drugs. In a saturated environment like that, it just spills
into their system."

Meth-addicted parents think of nothing but their next high, Terhune said.
Everything else becomes secondary, including the welfare of their children,
he said. Drug agents have reported finding kids using the same utensils to
eat that their parents use to manufacture the drug.

One key part of the program is the Child Abuse Response and Evaluation
Center. It's an area where trained volunteers can interview kids about
their home life in age-specific rooms.

Executive Director Penny Hampton said the CARE Center uses agency
coordination to limit the number of interviews the children must do to keep
them from constantly reliving their situations.

Gayhart said now that Oklahoma City has finalized its processes in the Drug
Endangered Child program, it's time to get other metro agencies on board.

"The thing we have in Oklahoma is separatism," he said. "In California,
they have countywide task forces. Here, we have 10 or 11 different agencies
with well-defined boundaries around Oklahoma City."

Edmond police spokeswoman Glynda Chu said the department is working with
the district attorney's office on a Drug Endangered Child program and will
model it after Oklahoma City's.

The program outreach will allow other cities to join the effort, making the
process more uniform.

"You don't want one part of the city enforced and not the rest," Gayhart
said. "Everybody has to be aware if we're going to stop this."