Gary police records chronicle hundreds of runaway reports from teen treatment facility 

Over and over again, the calls to the Lake County emergency dispatch center come in. 

“I need to report a runaway…”

“This is the Crisis Center…”

“It’s going to be a 15-year old female…”

Since 2012, the Crisis Center in Gary, an emergency shelter and treatment facility for teens - including some in Indiana’s foster care system - has called Gary police more than 400 times.

More than 200 of those calls were for missing person or runaway reports, according to an NBC 5 Investigates’ review of 911 dispatch records, police reports and body camera videos of the incidents.

Last year, there were 24 reports of runaways or missing persons. Through early May of this year, there have been at least seven filed with Gary police. 

Videos show the front door to the emergency shelter is equipped with an alarm, but it is not a locked facility, according to management. And staff told police that on some occasions, the children tell them they’re leaving. 

In one of the videos reviewed by NBC 5 Investigates, a staff member acknowledged last September that she waited nearly an hour to call police to report a missing teen. On the body camera video, the officer can be heard asking why she waited. Her response was that oftentimes the teens are nearby and return on their own before police arrive. 

In this particular case, the then-17-year old was found days later by his family wandering the streets of Gary. His family drove up to Gary from outside Indianapolis and formed search teams after learning he had runaway. 

While some dispatch logs show children have returned to the facility, the other records are incomplete or don’t detail whether how many children - if any - remain missing.

NBC 5 Investigates found this problem wasn’t isolated to one facility.

According to the Indiana Department of Child Services, there were 1,062 runaway reports last year at residential treatment facilities all across Indiana.

NBC 5 Investigates asked a DCS spokesman if someone from the agency was available to discuss the incidents or if there were efforts underway to abate the recurring number of incidents. As of Friday, we were still waiting on a response. 

In an emailed response, the Crisis Center’s executive director Marion Collins declined our request for an interview, citing privacy concerns. She declined to answer follow-up questions in general about the incidents and the criticism leveled against the facility. 

Cecilia Garmon, a former employee, said she worked at the facility for nearly three years before leaving for another job.

In an interview with NBC 5 Investigates, she was still critical of facility management.

She said employees can be hampered by low staffing levels and that children brought here have complex needs.

“Most of staff are not trained and do not understand that demographic of kids,” Garmon said. “So yes, there’s going to be fights, there are going to be staff that get in fights with kids. I’ve watched staff let kids fight.”

Dispatch records we reviewed show at least 35 reports of battery or fights over the past 12 years.

“I've seen kids that we know we can't work with or we can't help, and they just take them anyway to fill beds,” she said.  

On Christmas Day, police body camera video reviewed by NBC 5 Investigates showed a Department of Child Services caseworker telling police and a paramedic they needed a child removed.

“He is self-harming, hitting his head on the floor. I can’t keep him safe and I can’t keep the staff safe,” the DCS caseworker can be heard telling officers.

A paramedic reluctantly agreed to transport the teen, but only after DCS and staff explained they were not capable of providing care.

Two months later, police arrived for another runaway report, this time for an 18-year old who dispatch records show was taking anti-psychotic medications.

“It's just disheartening because, again, I've seen this done extremely well and I've seen it work where kids have every opportunity to thrive and the crisis center is just not that place,” Garmon said.

Online financial records from the state show the Crisis Center received more than $4 million from state agencies last fiscal year.