Occasionally, law enforcement gets directly involved in Child Protective Services (CPS) investigations. A family may be surprised when law enforcement shows up with CPS for reported allegations that may be frivolous, triggering thoughts of a disproportionate response. There’s a lot of confusion as to when law enforcement gets involved in CPS cases and the role they actually play.
If a CPS investigator has a concern about his or her own safety due to the allegation(s) made in the report, s/he can request a co-assist from law enforcement. In these cases, law enforcement is typically there in a just-in-case supportive role. CPS investigators are not allowed to be armed and at this point, the CPS investigator doesn’t know much about the case other than what was reported and is often assessing their risk on that report alone. They will typically hang around and not do anything or intervene unless requested by the CPS investigator. If it is reported there is a firearm in the home, many child welfare agencies will require a co-assist from law enforcement to ensure the safety of the CPS investigator. In these cases, law enforcement is primarily present in a supportive role unless they are there to confiscate the firearm.
Law enforcement presence is required in almost all cases of non-consensual removal of children from the home by CPS. This is because CPS cannot just remove your child(ren) from you without the legal discretion law enforcement has to enter your home under exigent circumstances and take custody of your child(ren)- especially if CPS is unable to obtain a court order prior to the removal’s occurrence. These are usually emotionally charged events, as well, so law enforcement plays the additional role of ensuring the process does not turn violent.
In allegations relevant to law enforcement, they will typically perform their own investigation. This is often limited to cases that are also criminal in nature. While custodial abuse and neglect were decriminalized in the 1960s, there are some allegations covered that are simultaneously criminal offenses- most often severe physical abuse and sexual abuse, as well as gross neglect that results in the death of a child. These are investigated by law enforcement and prosecuted independently of CPS in the criminal courts. In these cases, law enforcement and CPS typically go about their respective investigations on their own with little to no collaboration.
The one area of collaboration in cases where allegations are relevant to law enforcement is through the Child Advocacy Centers. These are regional multi-disciplinary centers (usually one per county) where specially trained forensic interviewers, law enforcement, child abuse expert medical professionals and CPS can collaborate on interviews and assessment of the family admissible in court, while reducing the amount of times the family has to be interviewed and assessed.
There are also former law enforcement employed by CPS known as investigative consultants. You will never meet these consultants, but what they do is background checks (other than child maltreatment background checks, which are performed by CPS investigators directly). Specifically, they maintain the clearances to check criminal records, prison records, police reports, flight manifests and more. This is how CPS obtains criminal history, domestic incident reports and other information so quickly without technically collaborating with active law enforcement.
There is a long-standing debate over whether CPS investigators should be considered social workers or law enforcement, with CPS agencies arguing that they’re social workers and many in the community arguing they’re law enforcement. Thus far, CPS investigators remain classified as social workers and therefore, are not required adhere to many of the same regulations as law enforcement- nor do they have the same authorities. Therefore, in many types of involvement, CPS requires the presence of law enforcement in order to piggy-back on the authority law enforcement has that CPS doesn’t as social workers. This is most common in non-consensual removals, where law enforcement can enter a home without prior consent in the suspicion of exigent circumstances and take custody of a child. While this is technically legal as an inter-agency cooperative endeavor, it makes the argument for CPS investigators as social workers particularly weak.
If law enforcement has shown up at your home at the behest of CPS, you likely won’t be told why. If it’s because CPS is taking custody of your child(ren), you’ll find out quickly. If removal is not the reason law enforcement is present and they’re just hanging around, they still have to respect your home. If you have a policy of no shoes in the home, you can request they remove their shoes. Like with CPS, if there’s no court order and it isn’t a non-consensual removal, you can ask them to leave. You can also ask the CPS investigator why law enforcement is present. If the answer is vague, do not be afraid to ask follow-up questions. You can also ask if this is a criminal investigation, a CPS investigation or both, but the answer you get may or may not be true (and even if true, it may be subject to change in the future). If you don’t ask, you can be fairly certain you won’t be told why they’re present unless there is a removal.
While frightening, law enforcement accompanying CPS is limited to several scenarios. Figuring out which is paramount to determining your best response. If CPS has requested a meeting at a Child Advocacy Center, that is the time to get legal representation (if you haven’t already), because that is one of the biggest red flags that law enforcement may also be investigating you and things are likely about to get really bad pretty quick. If you keep a clear head, remain mindful of what you share and keep a level head, you can ensure you reach the best possible outcome for your situation. The more you know, the better off you’ll be.