Mother Charged for Letting 7-year-old Daughter go to Park Across the Street Alone

Excerpts:

A Westbrook mother is upset with police after they picked up her daughter from a local park, but officers said the child was outside unsupervised.

Nicole Jensen and her three children live a few hundred feet from the park and Jensen said she lets her kids play together there because she can see them from her porch. She also said she requires them to check in with her every hour.

“I can usually count on at least a dozen that I know and that she plays with,” Jensen said. “We watch each other’s kids. I don’t just send her over here and ignore her all day.”

But Wednesday, police said Jensen’s 7-year-old daughter, Brooklynn, was playing alone.

They took her to the police station and charged Jensen with child endangerment.

“They said, ‘Do you know where your daughter is?’ and I said, ‘Yes,’ and they said, ‘Well no you don’t. She’s at the police station,” Jensen said about when police called her. “[The officer] said she was at the park unsupervised, no one knew where she was, and if I hadn’t gotten a hold of you, I would have taken her into DHHS.”

Westbrook Police Chief Janine Roberts said officers got a 911 call from a woman in the park, saying Brooklynn was alone.

The girl had been alone, Roberts said, for about an hour until officers arrived.

“She was terrified,” Jensen said about the ordeal. “They brought her to the police station when her house is right there.”

Jensen said police took it too far.

“She did nothing wrong,” Jensen said. “She’s followed all of my rules.”

Roberts said the case has been referred to DHHS.

Full Story.

Published on July 1, 2015

2 Comments

margibats47 July 2, 2015 at 7:26 am - Reply

As the person above said, why on earth didn’t the police ask the child where she lived, she could have told them and simply been taken back to her house. Imagine how terrified and anxious this poor child must have been, taken away from where she is safe and comfortable, put into a strange police car, taken away by strangers.  The authorities have such ridiculous powers, it is abnormal what happens in the US. Constant abuse of their powers, so lacking in intelligence, it’s beyond stupid.

Linda July 1, 2015 at 6:42 pm - Reply

Did the police ask the child where she lived?  This child could have been walked home instead of dragged off into a police car like she did something wrong.  This would have been the neighborly thing to do, if a child’s freedom of liberties was bothering this other lady.  This child was probably terrified being removed from the safety of her public play area and not able to walk home like she was taught to do.  Institutions like school staff on playgrounds and indoors cannot let a child out of their line of sight, yet it happens all the time.  I do not see police lining up those children and bringing them in to call their parents!  

I grew up with a school across the street from my home which was my cement playground and many out of sight areas on that school property.  My family lived in an impoverish area with socioeconomic disparities and I was there almost daily on my own from age 5 through 10. Not one problem, as I learned to avoid strangers by my parents teaching me safety skills, techniques and stranger danger awareness.  Children should not have to live in fear!  It appears that some grown ups are imposing their personal fear; is it realistic to take freedom away from the innocent child? 

CPS should be ashamed of themselves if they make a case out of this one!