LAWRENCE, Kan. (KCTV) – Spring often brings colorful yard displays, but one outside the Lawrence Police Department carries a quiet, powerful message.
The display is called a pinwheel garden. Since 2008, Prevent Child Abuse America has used the pinwheel as the symbol of its national prevention campaign, chosen because it represents childlike whimsy and the vision of every child growing up happy, healthy and safe.
This year marks the third time Lawrence police and their partners at the Children’s Advocacy Center (CAC) of Douglas County have planted one on the department’s front lawn. Their partnership began five years ago and changed how Lawrence police investigate crimes against children.
Spring often brings colorful yard displays, but one outside the Lawrence Police Department carries a quiet, powerful message.(KCTV5/Betsy Webster)How the partnership works
When a child comes forward to report abuse, the way that conversation happens matters enormously.
“The most important role is to create a child-friendly, neutral environment for the interview to take place,” said Bev Turner, Executive Director of the Children’s Advocacy Center of Douglas County.
A police department can be intimidating. Children instead come to the CAC, where a social worker specializing in forensic interviews takes the lead. Detectives watch from an adjacent room through cameras mounted on the wall.
“What we want to do is build an environment of safety where we can obtain information from our children,” said Sgt. Jamie Lawson of the Lawrence Police Department’s Special Victims Unit.
Police take it from there to get an offender prosecuted.
The forensic interview room at the Children’s Advocacy Center of Douglas County is designed to be welcoming and non-threatening for children. Detectives observe through cameras mounted on the wall from an adjacent room.(KCTV5/Betsy Webster)
Turner and Lawson said the partnership model is better for the child and the prosecution. There is usually less need to re-interview the child. If the child is not ready, there are therapists on site to work with them until they are ready. But the CAC’s role doesn’t end when the interview does. The center builds on the trust established in that room to support the rest of a child’s recovery — including therapy and long-term advocacy.
Lawson said it’s a relief to know they are there to meet those needs.
“As a police agency, we are going to meet a lot of trauma. We are going to meet a lot of people that go through a lot, so you can’t help being involved in people’s lives, and to just walk away from that and go on to the next thing, that’s where the CAC steps in,” Lawson said. “We just don’t have the capacity to carry on that relationship all the way through the court system.”
Similar programs have existed in other parts of the Kansas City metro for decades. Sunflower House was the first Children’s Advocacy Center of its kind in Kansas. It began providing such services to Johnson and Wyandotte Counties in 1977. The Child Protection Center in Kansas City, Missouri has been doing similar work in Jackson County, Missouri for 30 years.
What you can do
Turner said prevention starts at home.
“It starts with having conversations with kids from an early age about appropriate boundaries and safety,” she said. “They’re hard conversations to have, but if us as parents aren’t having that conversation, then who is, right?”
Turner said parents who aren’t sure where to start can reach out to the CAC directly. The center can provide books, resources and guidance on what is developmentally appropriate to share with children at different ages.
The Children’s Advocacy Center of Douglas County offers books and resources to help parents talk with their children about boundaries and body safety.(KCTV5/Betsy Webster)
Lawson said simply listening can make a difference.
“When a child tells you something, it is unlikely that they’re going to give you that information and that’s going to be made up,” he said. “I’ve done this for 25 years and I find that when a child tells me something, there’s a reason behind that.”
A box of pinwheels is available in the Lawrence Police Department lobby throughout the month of April. The public is welcome to take one home to plant in their own yard — or add to the display at the department — to honor a child in their life. Lobby hours are Monday-Thursday, 8 a.m.-noon and 1-5 p.m.
For more information about the Children’s Advocacy Center of Douglas County, visit cacdouglas.org.
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