MLGW Techs Learn to Spot Child Abuse

This aired on Channel 3 yesterday. Transcript below.

 

The job of an MLGW technician goes far beyond fixing gas leaks and power outages.

They are the eyes and ears that spot burglaries and other crimes in our community. Now they are on the look out for child abuse.

"They average from 20-25 houses that they go in each day," said Shelby Glore from MLGW.

Glore was a field tech for years and says the nearly 200 field technicians see a lot each day.

"He went to the house and when he got there the oldest child in the house he figured was about 7 years old," said Glore said about a story he heard from another field technician regarding kids being left alone at home.

From neglect, physical and even sexual abuse, The Memphis Child Advocacy Center has paired up with MLGW to know how to spot it.

And it's not just cuts and bruises.

"Maybe even inappropriate conversations that someone might be having with a child or even the yelling and degrading of a child," said Keita Cooley from the Memphis Child Advocacy Center.

This whole training came about right after three year-old Laderon Dunn and 2-year-old Catereon Dunn died in a house fire after they were left at home alone.

News Channel 3 opened a child abuse hotline just days later.

Among many calls received, a cable technician was concerned he might have seen abuse in a home he visited earlier that day.

That call inspired News Channel 3 management to arrange training with the Memphis Child Advocacy Center and Memphis Light Gas and Water.

The result is more than 200 people now know how to spot abuse when they see it and just how to report it.

"We are in hopes of maybe even going to Comcast and pest control, lawn, anybody that goes into the home," added Cooley.