Cops Harass Parents Who Let 6-Year-Old Daughter Take a Walk Outside, Arrest Dad

This fall, just as Keith Kaplan was finishing up his first term as a town councilman in the New York suburb of Teaneck, New Jersey, he proposed a Reasonable Childhood Independence bill. It states that when parents allow kids to perform age-old independent activities, like walking or playing outside, they are not committing negligence unless the the kids are in obvious, serious, and likely danger.

For Kaplan, the bill is especially important. That’s because of an incidence he witnessed involving his friends, their daughter, and the police.

On December 31, 2020, Kaplan received a text from friends who lived a few blocks away. They wanted to know if kids were allowed to be outside alone with parental permission. The police, it seemed, were at their house. Kaplan headed over, too.

His friends had allowed their daughter, who was almost seven-years-old, to take a walk around the neighborhood. A retired police officer had seen her and called the cops to report a child outside by herself in the cold.

The responding officer easily located the girl who was “dressed appropriately,” according to his report. He asked for her address, which she gave him. It was a few blocks away, and the cop proceeded to walk her home.

When they arrived, the girl introduced the officer to her mother and