PHOENIX — The new head of the Department of Child Safety is shutting down an internal investigations unit in what he said is the first step to refocusing the agency on the children it is supposed to protect.
Greg McKay said Wednesday that there is no need to have, or pay for, sworn police officers whose sole purpose has been to look for criminal conduct within the agency. He said there is nothing in state law that authorizes the Office of Special Investigations, which he called an “in-house police force.”
Officers in the unit can apply for other jobs in the agency, which he said can include everything from investigating complaints of criminal abuse to becoming one of the staffers responding to calls of child neglect.
McKay said the action might result in only a half-dozen people being moved into direct investigations, but it is just the first step toward “realigning” the staff to focus on direct investigations.
The bottom line, McKay said, is more bodies doing what DCS was created to do.
“The mission in this agency is child protection, child safety and permanence,” he said. “Anything that really doesn’t support that mission is going to be secondary in terms of necessity.”
McKay, named to head the agency earlier this month by Gov. Doug Ducey, said his decision goes beyond the lack of authority for the special unit.
“We don’t need police officers policing our internal staff,” he said.
“If we have criminal allegations against staff, we’ll call the police,” McKay continued. And if the complaints are not criminal, he said, they can be handled by human resources workers.
McKay said the move will not just get more bodies into the field, but could decrease the need to remove children from their homes and place them into an overburdened foster care system.
“If we don’t physically respond when there’s an allegation of abuse or neglect because we don’t have the manpower, or we respond and don’t do a proper investigation, then what happens is we either didn’t show up or we ‘vacate’ (the complaint), and then the situation escalates,” he said.
“And then the next time we’re back, it’s gotten out of control,” McKay said. “And now there’s a safety threat and removal (of the child) has to be done.”
That, he said, serves no one.
“By getting out and doing the investigation before the situation escalates, by delivering some appropriate level of service to people, leave them better than the way we found them, then we’ll reduce the amount of kids coming into care,” McKay said
The move has the approval of Rep. Kate Brophy McGee, R-Phoenix, who was at the forefront of wresting child welfare chores from the Department of Economic Security last year and creating DCS.
“This is a major step in making sure DCS is protecting our most vulnerable children,” McGee said in a prepared statement.
“Prevention and early intervention are critical to child safety, reducing the backlog, and making sure children are not removed from their homes unnecessarily.”
