PHOENIX - A task force is recommending formation of a special unit within Child Protective Services to investigate the most serious cases of child abuse and neglect to determine if crimes have been committed, a new report states.
The report, released Friday, comes in the wake of the high-profile deaths of several youngsters who had been in the CPS system.
Gov. Jan Brewer, who chose the task-force members, said she wanted a top-to-bottom review of the child-protection process.
Clarence Carter, director of the Department of Economic Security, which oversees CPS, said one clear realization is that the existing system focuses on the child. But he said that when criminal conduct is involved in abuse or neglect cases, there needs to be a broader investigation.
"You need to have the orientation of a child welfare professional," he said. "But that needs to be married with the orientation of a law enforcement specialist."
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Carter said the dual system is needed to ensure the protection of children along with "identifying and adjudicating" the criminal conduct allegation.
While these investigators will have a criminal-law background, they will not be sworn officers. Police would be called in if it became necessary to seek criminal charges.
Other key recommendations in the report include:
• Crafting "clear and usable definitions" of child abuse and neglect to make it easier to identify cases of criminal conduct;
• Allowing school officials and child welfare workers to share more information with each other;
• Providing greater training for CPS employees, particularly those who staff the child-abuse hot line, to be able to correctly identify the priority of complaints.
Task force members also want more "transparency" in how CPS operates. That includes a new statutory mandate that establishes a presumption that agency records are open to the public while maintaining the legal requirement for confidentiality.
Carter, who co-chaired the panel, acknowledged that has not been the case.
"DES has to sharpen its ability and its willingness to share as much information as does not compromise privacy," he said. "And I think, as an organization, we have historically erred on the lesser side."
Gubernatorial press aide Matthew Benson said his boss had just received the report and had no comment.
He also said Brewer is not going to commit herself now to recommending any of the proposals to the Legislature or even seek the necessary funding in the budget request she will make to lawmakers in two weeks.
Carter said he is still coming up with estimates of the cost of various elements in the package.
Some changes, however, do not require legislation.
One focus for Carter involves the hotline that becomes the beginning point for most investigations started by CPS.
He wants to use some of the new investigators with law enforcement experience to review calls coming in to determine whether they are being properly classified.
That is important because complaints are ranked on a 1 to 4 scale based on whether the person taking the call believes immediate attention is necessary.
"A call may get coded at a 3, which is low in priority," Carter said. "And when we get somebody out there, they review the circumstances and it really should have been a 1."
He said the investigators, working with that information, will then revamp the training "to ensure that we are making better determinations on how we are coding our cases."
