Child death investigation rules issued

A county task force on Tuesday released a set of guidelines for how law enforcement and child protective services are to investigate child deaths.

The guidelines came in response to criticisms about how authorities respond to child deaths.

Under the new directives by the Southern Nevada Child Fatality Task Force, the lead police investigator into the suspicious death of a child is to coordinate the investigation with a slew of other agencies, including Child Protective Services, the Clark County coroner's office and the district attorney's office.

The guidelines, designed to "create a more uniform, consistent community response to child death in Clark County," according to the report, also define the roles of various agencies in the investigation of the deaths.

The guidelines address criticisms found in a 2006 report by the state's Blue Ribbon Panel for Child Death Review, which found that agencies frequently failed to work together to investigate child deaths.

In some cases, the report stated, CPS investigators were excluded from interviews with parents; personal dislikes or perceptions between agencies interfered with professional responsibilities; and the failure to work together prevented the district attorney's office from even becoming aware of some deaths.

Barbara Legier, deputy administrator for the state's Division of Child and Family Services, praised the county's guidelines.

"It's a great protocol," she said.

But frequent CPS critic Donna Coleman said the guidelines don't do anything to prevent deaths from happening.

"OK, it's nice to know what happened and I'm all for progress and not letting people get off the hook for killing their children, but I'd like to see this happen before the death," she said.