P.R. Laws tit. 8, § 446b
Any state or municipal police officer, social worker, or technician especially designated by the Department, school director, teacher, school social worker, behavioral professional, physician, official of the Commonwealth Emergency Management Agency, health professional, including mental health professional, who has a minor under treatment shall have emergency custody without the consent of the father, mother, or other person responsible for the minor when he or she knows or suspects that there is imminent risk to the safety, health, and physical, mental, or emotional integrity of the minor; and when one or more of the following circumstances occurs:
(a) The father, mother, or other person responsible for the minor is not available, in spite of an effort to locate him or her, or does not consent to have the minor removed.
(b) When notifying the father, mother, or other person responsible for the minor would increase the imminent risk to the minor or to another person.
(c) The risk is of such a nature that there is no time to petition the court for custody.
The person in charge of a hospital or a similar medical institution shall assume emergency custody of a minor when he or she knows or suspects that the minor has been a victim of abuse, institutional abuse, neglect, and/or institutional neglect; when he or she deems that the facts justify doing so, even though additional medical treatment is not required, and even if the father, mother, or other person responsible for the minor demands that he or she be returned to them.
Any person who assumes emergency custody of a minor shall immediately report this fact to the hotline of the Department, as provided in this chapter. The Department shall take the necessary protection measures for the minor and shall take care of placement needs. Emergency custody shall not be assumed by any jail, juvenile institution, or any other place for the detention of juvenile delinquents or offenders.
The emergency custody referred to in this section may not exceed twenty-four (24) hours, except in those cases in which court authorization has been requested and obtained through the procedures set forth in this chapter, or when it has not been possible to obtain said authorization because the court is in recess.
History —Aug. 1, 2003, No. 177, § 23, eff. 90 days after Aug. 1, 2003.