COP: Parents have to be more assertive and firm

Police Commissioner Keith Miller has made a call for parents to be more “assertive and firm” when dealing with their children.{{more}}

Miller’s call came on Monday, November 7, while speaking about a teenaged girl of the Villa / Calliaqua area who went missing from her father’s home in the wee hours of Sunday, October 30.

Miller said the girl, who has lived with her grandmother for most of her life, went to her father’s home to spend some time. On Saturday, October 29, the child told her father that she was going out with “a friend”.

Miller said the child returned home at about 3:00 a.m on Sunday, after the Secondary Schools’ Miss Heritage Show at Victoria Park. He said just one hour later, at about 4:00 a.m., the father woke up and realised that the girl was not at home.

The Commissioner said on the day that the child was reported missing, the police, who were in search of her, saw her coming from an abandoned building.

Miller said the child’s uncle also saw her and said he was going to tell her father. “That child’s response was “Tell him na, what do I care.”

The girl eventually returned home on Tuesday, November 1, after her mother and grandmother made appeals on radio and television.

Miller said that kind of activity is bringing too much pressure on the police, and also on concerned parents.

“Parents have to be assertive and firm. To me, parents have to use the appropriate method. Not abuse. We will not sanction parents abusing children, but parents have to be firm…,” Miller said.

The top cop said there are too many young people, who one way or the other, are able to have their own way or by some means manipulate their parents to get their own way.

This is a serious cause for concern, he said.

“I believe social workers must become more involved; they have to work with parents and parents themselves must not condone, but bring these things to the fore…,” Miller implored.

Miller said at the end of the day, when these things are neglected, police have to deal with the end result, and they are often blamed by the public.

“We have radio programs, we have persons going into schools to speak with children…People have to sit down and help pull the community back together,” the Commissioner added.