‘You Need A Warrant!’: Hawaii’s Dubious Practice Of Taking Children Without A Court Order 0 More than 80% of children taken into protective custody in Hawaii are removed from their families without a judge’s approval. That’s not how it works in many other jurisdictions.
One evening in November 2020, Jennifer Chapman’s estranged husband called the Hawaii government agency in charge of protecting children to report that she was using methamphetamines and unable to care for her infant, then nearly 2 months old.
Child Welfare Services called Honolulu Police Department dispatch to ask for help taking custody of the baby, according to a police report.
After meeting briefly with a CWS caseworker in a McDonald’s parking lot, an HPD officer drove to where Chapman was living in Aina Haina and knocked on the door, announcing he was there to take Chapman’s baby. But Chapman, who said her husband had concocted the meth accusation, refused to cooperate.
“You are not coming into my house,” she said, according to the police report. “You need a warrant!”
As another officer approached the door, Chapman held out her arm to block him. The first officer grabbed her right arm and Chapman went to the ground, the report says. The officers took the baby and handed him over to CWS, which placed him in foster care.
