First Responder Protocol for Commercially Sexually Exploited Children

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2015

The First Responder Protocol was developed as a first step to providing a victim-centered multi-agency response model to address the needs of Commercially Sexually Exploited Children (CSEC). This protocol was created to include a unified response between the Los Angeles County Departments of the Sheriff, Children and Family Services, Probation, and Health Services; and Long Beach Police Department (LBPD); Trinity Youth Services; and Saving Innocence, a non-profit organization. Together these entities collaborate in order to provide the necessary steps to meet the physical, medical and emotional needs of children removed from the streets and identified as suspected CSEC youth. Multi-disciplinary teams (MDT) will be convened between the CSW, law enforcement, advocate and hospital personnel (if appropriate) to determine the best safety plan, case plan and placement for the child. A decision will be made to determine whether the child can safely be returned to the parent with safeguards in place, or whether detention and placement is necessary to ensure safety. Since its rollout, between August 2014 and February 2015, there have been twenty-two recoveries, two of which have been recovered twice. Additionally, eleven pimps were identified during the initial investigations and one has been identified as a murder suspect.