IMPD Criticizes False Missing Child Reports for Wasting Resources

IMPD Criticizes False Missing Child Reports for Wasting Department Resources

Indy Metro Police are getting tired of reminding people to only report a missing child if they're actually missing.

INDIANAPOLIS – Metro Police are frustrated about having to remind the public only to report a missing child if they are actually missing, saying both the department’s time and taxpayer-funded resources were wasted on false reports twice in one week.

Court documents describe 22-year-old Nydia Deamus as “highly intoxicated” when police showed up to an apartment complex on Stonecrest Ct. earlier this month. Already suspected of battery against a neighbor and an officer, she claimed her 4-year-old daughter disappeared – resulting in a social media alert and an hours-long search by a dozen officers and detectives from multiple agencies, some operating drones.

“The community’s engaged, they’re vested in it, they care, they want to find this child. All for it to be nothing? That’s very, very sad,” said IMPD Public Information Officer Tommy Thompson.

Turns out, police say video revealed Deamus willingly placing her child in a family member’s car before the officers arrived.

“We cannot afford to have these resources – that staffing level, that amount of individuals taken away from various other needs around the city,” Thompson added. “It’s just disappointing at the end of the day. And that’s why we need to hold people accountable.”

Just a few days later, on June 11, a woman at an east side Walmart claimed her husband kidnapped her 6-year-old, 3-year-old and 10-month-old children – when, in fact, court documents show she eventually learned the truth, but kept spinning a lie.

“I think it’s strange to see two [cases] in such a short time span,” Thompson added. “It’s not something we see very often.”

An arrest affidavit reveals the woman’s husband parked the car with her children inside while she shopped, and he then fell asleep. She assumed the worst when she couldn’t reach him over the phone and called 911, but soon realized her mistake.

Instead of calling off this similarly massive search, which involved state police, she told her husband to leave the car at a nearby Kroger and delete text messages where he said: “I rather deal with the police I don’t trust leaving my babies.”

She responded: “They gone take you to jail, the hell just go.”

“When I was a judge, when I got a case like that, that person is going to jail,” Johnson County Prosecutor Lance Hamner weighed in.

Hamner, also a former judge, shared his perspective on both arrests. He believes the law should reflect the severity of possible consequences of tying up police resources – that there should be at least a level six felony charge available in these cases.

FOX59/CBS4 is not naming the suspect in the Walmart case because, as of the time of this article’s publication, she has only been formally charged with misdemeanor false informing.

“I think it should be taken very seriously,” Hamner added. “That’s why I think the penalties need to be up, and that’s why I think judges need to apply jail time to this. There needs to be a statement made that this kind of stuff isn’t going to be tolerated.”

Of course, police emphasize they will continue to prioritize missing child reports, so the public should not hesitate to reach out in a real emergency. Callers must just admit when they no longer have one.

“We want to protect children. We want to go full throttle and find these kids when they’re missing,” Thompson said. “But when you steal resources from the city of Indianapolis, the community members, that’s what we’re here for. You’re going to be held accountable.”

Nydia Deamus also faces a misdemeanor false informing charge, but in addition faces: