Ramraiding teen subject of rare court battle over what to do with him
Ramraiding teen subject of rare court battle over what to do with him
The 14-year-old was behind a spate of crimes across Hawke's Bay. Police wanted him under a custody order, but Oranga Tamariki refused.
I feel Oranga Tamariki really dropped the ball here. The police have tried to do their best and months of crime could’ve been stopped if OT had stepped up earlier.
OT is following some bureaucratic checklist when making decisions. Said checklist was probably designed by a group of people whose primary goals were "obey the legislation" and "don't get us in the media again for stupid rules".
It's not that long ago they were in the media because of complaints about them being too hasty to remove kids from their parents.
In this case it seems odd that they refused the Police request, but we have no idea how many requests Police make and how many are granted, or even the reason for the refusal. Maybe they didn't have somewhere to send a 14 year old committing serious crimes (short of jail - which has it's own consequences).
I get that this is shit, but I would never want to be the one making these decisions.
Even if it was a case of a checklist, there will always be those that fall through the cracks, checklist or not. If the checklist failed this one kid but succeeded for 10 others, then perhaps all we can hope for is small improvements rather than perfection.