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Franklin County approves contract with CSI Corporate Security to help locate runaways and support child-safety plans
Summary
County commissioners approved a new contract with CSI Corporate Security to assist Children and Youth Services with locating runaways and supporting in-home safety work; officials said the vendor offers multiple services but the county expects to use a subset aligned with existing duties.
Franklin County commissioners voted to approve a contract with CSI Corporate Security to provide specialized services for Children and Youth Services, the county announced during its regular meeting.
Minnie Goshorn, director of Children and Youth Services, told commissioners the county previously lacked an out-of-state search resource and has had difficulty securing consistent assistance when youth run near the Maryland line. "We didn't really have the service available to us," Goshorn said, adding that other counties reported success using the vendor to find missing children and help ensure safety when safety plans are in place.
The contract will give the county access to a range of services listed in the vendor's rate sheet. Goshorn told commissioners she does not expect the county to use all offered services because Children and Youth already provides family-finding, transport and hospital accompaniment duties in-house. She also said regulations prevent county staff from conducting out-of-state searches themselves, which has limited prior responses when families or youth cross into Maryland.
Commissioner Hurst asked whether the county had relied on outside agencies previously; Goshorn said the county had contacted neighboring children's agencies and relied on local law enforcement but had "run into snags" with cross-jurisdictional support. She described a current case in which a youth the county believes is in Maryland has been located by Maryland authorities but the county must rely on that jurisdiction to take custody.
A motion to approve the contract passed by voice vote; no roll-call tally was recorded in the meeting minutes.
The contract text presented to commissioners includes a broad menu of services; county officials said use will be scoped to needs and to activities the department cannot perform because of interjurisdictional limits.
