CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — Nueces County District Attorney's Criminal Interdiction Unit Supervisor Mike Tamez was faced with a sad reality of his job during the execution of a search warrant at a suspected drug home in Corpus Christi last year.
A 5-year-old is carried out by officers and a couple is led away in handcuffs from the house where crystal methamphetamine was found in plain sight on the dinner table.
An 8-year-old girl who also was in the house later tested positive for meth in her system.
"These kids might overdose and die, and that is the biggest hazard," Tamez said.
This is why the county has started working with the local Child Protective Services office to make sure they get children living in those extreme conditions the help they need faster.
Tamez said, as a parent himself, it's tough to see children caught in the middle of their parent's criminal actions.
"Do I think the parents of these children selling drugs, do I think that is their intention? Obviously not, but a child doesn't know, they see black tar heroin, could easily be identified as candy," he said.
He said the partnership helps streamline the process to make sure children are taken out of dangerous situations quickly.
"So when we know we are going to hit a house, we notify their special investigators, law enforcement branch, notify their case workers, the ball is already rolling before we even reach the door," he said. "So when we do hit the house and we encounter the children, CPS will take that over immediately and start processing that child."
Tamez tells 3NEWS the benefit of this is huge because CPS agents can often see things his team might not necessarily be looking for.
"The CPS caseworker asked if we could put the child down to see if he could walk, 'cause our officers carried the child out of the house, and I asked 'Why do you need to see if the child can walk?' "
Because of the accessibility to drugs, he said he was told.
Partnerships such as this are important, with CPS responding to close to 300 calls involving children for various reasons just in July alone.
"It's so very important that, with law enforcement -- any of our stake holders -- that we have a very good working relationship to where we understand what their role is, they understand what (our) role is, and the sooner we can become involved, the better for all parties involved," said Department of Family and Protective Services spokesperson John Lennan.
He said it's about doing what's in the best interest of the children and their families through the services his office offers.
"Our role is to ensure the safety of the children. Are they being cared for at that moment, if there is a situation where their current caretaker aren't able to care for those children, have they made alternative arrangements if not does that mean the children will have to come in the states care," said Lennan.
While Lennan stresses that CPS workers are civil investigators not criminal investigators, Tamez said the partnership is a force multiplier.
"The good thing now having CPS involved, hopefully we can make the impact letting these people know -- if you are dealing drugs in this county, doing so with children in the household, you are not going to have to deal with the drugs but the children getting removed from the house," he said.