KSHB 41 reporter Fernanda Silva covers stories in the Northland, including Liberty. She also focuses on issues surrounding immigration. Share your story idea with Fernanda.
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The first Safe Haven Baby Box in Kansas City, Missouri, will be installed soon at Fire Station 14 in the Northland.
The Safe Haven Baby Box will provide parents a safe, anonymous option to surrender a newborn under Missouri law.
Funding is secured and the state has inspected the installation.
A KCMO Fire Department spokesman told KSHB 41 News Northland Reporter Fernanda Silva the box is in production, a process that takes about three weeks.
Sherae Honeycutt, press secretary and city spokeswoman for Kansas City, Missouri, said the box addresses a gap for parents in crisis who may not feel safe surrendering a child in person.
"The boxes offer a place where that mother can surrender her child to a safe location and do it in a way that still gives her dignity," Honeycutt said.
City officials say Missouri’s Safe Place for Newborns Act allows a parent to voluntarily give up their newborn up to 90-days-old without prosecution. The process must done safely and according to state law.
Honeycutt said the box offers an alternative for parents who fear judgment or don't fully understand the law.
"These boxes give an alternative where they can know that the child is going to a safe place, know that they're going to these people that will care and love their child, but they don't have that fear that maybe I'll get arrested. There are a lot of situations where the mother doesn't know what the law is," Honeycutt said.
Honeycutt described how the box works once a baby is placed inside.
"Immediately, once a baby is placed in that box, an alarm sounds that will go through the entire fire department," she said. "And so a person on call will go to that box and that child will be in that box for a very short amount of time. And then once that baby is taken into the custody of the fire department, they will alert the local authorities and children's division and they will have a plan to find housing for that baby that day,"
Michael Hopkins, battalion chief and spokesperson for the Kansas City Fire Department, said fire stations have long served as a trusted drop-off point for infants in crisis, and the box makes that option more accessible.
"Fire stations have always been a safe place to drop off an infant or a child if you find yourself in that situation," Hopkins said. "The Safe Haven Baby Boxes allow someone to do that more anonymously and safely."
Angie Blumel, president and CEO of Jackson County Court Appointed Special Advocates (CASA) , works with children in the foster care system and said the box offers something critical to parents facing impossible circumstances.
"It gives them a sense of — in the face of a very difficult circumstance, a very difficult choice — a sense of safety. And to me, that's compassionate," Blumel said.
Blumel said the parents who use these boxes are not defined by that decision.
"These aren't bad people who don't love their kids. They're parents who are left with unimaginable choices," Blumel said.
This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.
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