A parent has the right to look to the criminal-justice system for assistance, despite the practices of some criminal-justice systems to refer to these family-abduction cases as private matters best left to the family court to resolve. The distinguishing characteristics of family-abduction, including the emotional scarring that is caused to the child and family, require officers to recognize these events as not a harmless offense where two parents are arguing over who ‘loves the child more,’ but instead as an insidious form of child abuse. By responding promptly, professionally, and efficiently to reports of family-abduction, officers and the agencies they represent become a means of protection for the child and may avert imminent and irreparable harm, including a high degree of emotional pain and self-abusive behaviors.

Email your sheriff’s office and state attorney now: Urge them to stop dismissing families’ pleas for help regarding Interference with custody, and remind them of their ‘duty of care.’ To not enforce this statute that protects families with court-ordered parenting plans is a dereliction of responsibility.