In the course of a Child Protective Services (CPS) investigation, an enormous amount of private personal information is collected and stored. When the government gets involved, people often assume realize the government has access to information the public may not necessarily get to see, but how this is done is often shrouded in mystery- as is usually the case when we’re talking about CPS.
While CPS has connections to other executive government agencies (such as public schools, public health agencies and public hospitals), CPS often claims their collaboration with law enforcement is limited, so how do they get access to so much privileged legal information? CPS has multiple types of consultants, but when it comes to legal information, the answer is: they obtain it through their team of investigative consultants.
Unlike the other types of consultants CPS works with discussed previously, investigative consultants are typically employed by CPS directly and are former law enforcement officers (usually retired from the local police force). This means they already have the experience and security clearances in law enforcement to access the law enforcement databases on behalf of CPS to obtain information on individuals identified in CPS reports (and anyone else in the household or deemed pertinent to the case). You won’t likely hear about the investigative consultants and you won’t meet them. Investigative consultants operate behind the scenes, collecting and providing data to CPS.
Typically, once a report comes in and is assigned to a CPS investigator, the CPS investigator will submit a request for an investigative consultation where background checks are performed on all household members named in the report. If there are any other household members not named in the report, those names may be added, as well. In as little as a day to as much as a week later, the investigative consultant returns a substantial amount of data on each individual listed. This includes domestic incident reports, criminal charges, any convictions, prison time and more. The domestic incident reports in particular are often scrutinized heavily by CPS. In the eyes of CPS, prior history of alleged domestic violence by a parent where law enforcement was called can be made into a serious safety concern and a very disproportionate response.
Investigative consultants may also assist when there is difficulty locating a family, tracking down information across state lines and more. If an alleged subject in a CPS investigation has fled, the investigative consultants can assist in tracking them down. They’re even able to track down families who have relocated to domestic violence shelters, which are shrouded in secrecy for the safety of the occupants. Upon request, they can check flight manifests, Immigration & Customs Enforcement (ICE) information, criminal history, address history and relatives. However, CPS does not typically report anything to ICE, as that is beyond their purview.
The existence of the investigative consultants means that when CPS shows up at your door, it’s not just prior CPS history you might need to worry about; it’s anything imperfect in your history that remains linked to your name in some database somewhere. It means you need to rethink your risk of severe consequences to your family. When people are young adults, they may do some dumb things. They may make mistakes. While that doesn’t necessarily make them bad parents, CPS will go through your history with a microscope and at the very least, question you about it. If you have a criminal history before you got yourself together, CPS will take this into account and it could be used against you. If you have had disputes with your ex and the police were called, CPS will find out- even if it was twenty years ago. When subjected to a CPS investigation (or ideally, before), these are important things to think about.
At CPSprotect Consulting Services, we recommend that if couples are going to have an argument, that they do it while their child(ren) are over at a friend’s house, at school or with relatives. If you must call law enforcement on your partner to protect yourself, make sure you are protecting yourself and your future. If you do have a history, make sure you have explanations and credible collaterals who can vouch for your character. If you’re going through particularly messy divorce proceedings, disclose all of this to your family law attorney to hedge against the possibility that CPS might be used against you.
While the investigative consultants aren’t meant to be seen on the front lines or even mentioned, they play a profound role in providing data that CPS uses to make determinations about child safety. After all, they obtain this information with little to no help from you. When the standard CPS holds parents to for what makes a good parent and a good home being close to perfection, this can be a frightening prospect. However, when you know what CPS is looking at, you can prepare accordingly and put yourself in the best possible position to keep your family intact in the face of CPS.