WHEREAS, the State Child Abuse Death Review Committee
presented compelling research on using doll re enactments as a tool in child death investigations, and;
WHEREAS, thorough investigative findings have revealed
many cases that were classified as Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, were actually deaths as a
result of suffocation due to unsafe sleep practices, and;
WHEREAS, the FPCA supports this initiative, urging
members of Law Enforcement involved in child death investigations to include doll re-enactments as part of
their investigation, and;
WHEREAS, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention is
sponsoring the SUIDI, or Sudden Unexplained Infant Death Investigation. This new initiative
is designed to promote a more thorough investigation of sudden and unexpected infant death
cases throughout the country with the goal of identifying risk factors involved in certain
types of infant deaths and using knowledge of these risk factors to prevent many future
infant deaths, and;
WHEREAS, the SUIDI initiative stresses
the use of doll re-enactments as valuable tools in an investigation. By recreating the
position and sleeping environment in which the infant was placed to sleep and the position
in which the infant was found, the doll re-enactment in many cases provides law enforcement
and the pathologist with a much better understanding of the role that the sleeping
environment played in the death, and;
WHEREAS, the FPCA supports the CDC
SUIDI initiative stressing the necessity of a multidisciplinary approach to these
investigations, with collaboration between law enforcement, the medical examiner's office,
Department of Children and Families and treating physicians.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, having
considered a formal request by Major Connie Shingledecker, Chairperson for the State Child
Abuse Death Review Committee, the Florida Police Chiefs Association officially supports the
findings and recommendations of the State Child Abuse Death Review Committee in regards to
the use of doll re-enactments in child death investigations.
PASSED AND ADOPTED this 13th day of January, 2008 in
St. Augustine, Florida at a duly constituted meeting of the Board of Directors of the Florida Police
Chiefs Association.
