Four years ago, Texas child protective services hired hundreds of child abuse investigators with law enforcement backgrounds. Today, one-third of the positions are vacant.
Officials say that's because of the special investigators’ complaints
of “culture clashes and ineffectiveness,” reports the Houston Chronicle.
The
investigators were initially hired to improve techniques designed to
save victims of child abuse and neglect. Authorities say 273 of the
431 hired have left the department.
The Chronicle reports that
CPS continues to be under scrutiny for 4 recent child deaths. Three
Huston-area children who were reported to CPS as possible abuse victims
have died. Last month, an Arlington boy died in a hot car; his mother
had been identified as having a history of abuse and neglect and
contacted numerous times by CPS. None of these children’s cases were
handled by the special investigators hired to protect them.
CPS
spokesman Patrick Crimmins acknowledged challenges “assimilating law
enforcement types into the agency and acknowledged some friction” but
claims the agency is stronger now for it.
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The PROTECT Lobby
Our Mission
The National Association to Protect Children is a national, pro-child, anti-crime membership association. We are founded on the belief that our first and most sacred obligation as parents, citizens, and members of the human species is the protection of children from harm.
PROTECT is a bipartisan pro-child, anti-crime lobby whose sole focus is making the protection of children a top political and policy priority at the national, state and local level.
