Not to blame the social worker, but she had the power, responsibility and authority to demand immediate emergency status be placed on her call. “I am a county social worker under court order, two boys have been taken from me and I need immediate police backup.”. The children had been taken from her custody, kidnaped if you will and she was no longer in control of them as the court had ordered and she showed very little if any sense of urgency.
Nothing in what you wrote, had she said it, would have made the police get there any sooner. Read what you wrote. You didn't mention a threat, you didn't mention danger to the children. You basically said that the father is being a disagreeable jerk, and is breaking the rules of child visitation.
The social worker can't tell the police that there is a threat if she wasn't aware of one. What you describe happens more than you'd probably ever want to know. People whose children are taken into care often antagonize the social workers who are in charge of that care. If this had stopped at the father opening the door and the kids being given back to the care of the social worker, it's doubtful the father would have even been arrested.
This man slaughtered those children, then blew up the house. The social worker didn't know it, though, until after the fact. She didn't have anything to say other than what she actually knew. She can't make stuff up and create a dangerous situation where one doesn't exist - if she did, would you want her to do it in the 99 other times this happened, but the kids come out 3 minutes later, unharmed?
I know a couple of social workers, and what they go through could make you cry.
And how about including the MOST IMPORTANT piece of the puzzle, the LOCATION? Really, having the visit take place on Crazy Dad’s turf was a horrible blunder, but is it too much to ask that the social worker knows where the hell they are? Just how are emergency services to find them?
Besides, would it have been so hard for the social worker to call the police in advance of the visit, and let them know what was going on? It being a “high profile case” and Crazy Dad’s refusal to undergo psychosexual evaluation should have set things on edge.
I know I’m Monday-morning quarterbacking here, but come on! There’s plenty of blame to go around here. But I keep going back to the fact that this dingbat didn’t even know where she was and expected Superman to come rescue her and they boys!