Public Safety Agencies

The organization under investigation is Child Protective Services, also referred to as CPS, which is an agency within the Department of Family and Protective Services. CPS is a governmental organization that has existed for years. The agency is designed to protect children from abuse and neglect. There are numerous cases that are called in on a daily basis in the state of Texas, and it is the duty of state employees to address all allegations in a timely manner. The positions held as a caseworker within the agency are either Investigator, Special Investigator, Family Based Safety Services Specialist, or Conservatorship Specialist. Due to the required work and deadlines involved with being a caseworker at CPS, the job can become very

Computerized communication within law enforcement has and will continue to improve law enforcement as the technology is implemented and utilized within these agencies. The utilization of such devices as mobile data terminals (MDT’s) has given the average patrol officer access to enormous amounts of information. Even in 1979, Computer and technology were said to “have the potential to aid in criminal justice activities through the rapid communication of accurate and complete information, and perhaps a more rational approach to decision-making” (Colton, 1979. P.19). Now in 2014, the computers and

The controversial issue of whether or not Child Protective Services are doing their jobs properly, has grabbed nationwide attention. Child Protective Services is the name of a government agency in many states of the United States whose mission is to respond to reports of child abuse and neglect. Some of these cases may include physical abuse, sexual abuse, and mental abuse (Wikipedia). The child welfare system is corrupted. The parents and guardians who are accused of abuse are automatically labeled as guilty and will have to prove their innocence; instead of being innocent until proven guilty.

The chosen population of interest for the course project is children who are placed in foster care. Children in foster care are considered vulnerable due to a variety of reasons for which they are taken away from home and placed in the child welfare system. Foster care children are often removed from their home due to physical abuse, drug exposure, or in some cases due to parental inability to fulfill the child basic necessities. Foster care children are at greater risk of mental, health, and behavioral problems (Lovie, Beadnell, & Pecora, 2015). Case management is an essential part of the care plan to improve the outcomes of the population of interest. Foster care children face additional problems when the health care system is inadequate.

When children come into the custody of DCFS and are placed into Foster Care they are scared, confused, lonely, and usually conditioned not to tell when they are being mistreated. Most of the children that come into “the system” have learned to accept abuse as normal or natural and are unaware that they are even being mistreated. Therefore, when they are placed in homes where this is occurring it is not in their nature to speak up. Once they are removed from their parents, they are solely reliant on the department for their protection and it is the department’s responsibility to provide that protection which has not always been fulfilled by the department or the foster care agencies. The department should be making reasonable efforts to provide proper services

Terrorism has always existed in American policing, and while the groups committing these acts have changed, their intentions have not. Their intentions being to cause maximum fear and scare those who they target into doing and following their ideology. In the 1970’s and 1980’s in America, the main terrorist groups were associated with the environmental movement and race based groups, while other parts of the world were dealing with Islamic extremists, were committing terrorist acts across the Middle East without much intervention from the United States. In fact the group Al-Qaeda, who attacked the World Trade Centers in 1993 and 2001, found its roots in the 1980’s fighting the Soviet Union in Afghanistan with weapons supplied by the Central Intelligence Agency. While the U.S. Federal Law Enforcement agencies knew of these groups, they underestimated the capabilities of lone wolf, small cell, and whole terrorist organizations. This was due to the fact that the Federal Law Enforcement agencies top priority was general crime such as organized crimes and white-collar crime.

Child Protective Services (CPS) is a complex system of assessments, investigations, and conclusions. CPS is the central agency in each communities child abuse and neglect service system. It is responsible for ensuring that preventative, investigative, and treatment services are available to children and families endangered by child abuse and neglect. As a result, CPS workers must perform a variety of functions when responding to situations of child maltreatment and play a variety of roles throughout their involvement with child protective clients. Reporting a suspective case of child maltreatment to the local CPS agency (or a family member’s own request for help with the problem) initiates

My field placement will be at Child protective services in El Paso TX. The department of child Protective Services withholds a wide range of services and responsibilities that include, investigating reports of abuse and neglect of children, provide services to children and families in their homes, providing services to help youth in foster care successfully transition to adulthood and helping children find adoption. There are many subdivisions within the department itself which offers different amenities during an open case with CPS, although these services solely justify the department, there is a unit known as Family Based Services or also FBSS which focuses on resources that will strengthen the family’s privation in order to ensure child safety and wellbeing. The Department predominantly benefits from task groups rather than treatment groups, because the department is on deadlines with each individual case, a treatment group would not benefit for the departments ultimate value which is Family Reunification. If the department is involved with a family for too long this may cause emotional distress on the children as well as the family. Every year in the United States, more than one out of every hundred children are victims of substantiated child abuse and neglect. For instance, in 2006, 3.6 million cases of child maltreatment were investigated, which is a rate of 47.8 per 1,000 children. In that year, nearly 1 million maltreatment claims were substantiated

On the state level, they perform functions outside the jurisdiction of the sheriff. They help to coordinate multi-jurisdiction task force activity in serious or complicated situations, but only in states that grant full power statewide.

Public Safety – The role of looking after the public's safety. A state, federal or local organization that looks after the safety of the public.

Moving along, one of the biggest issues and trends facing law enforcement today and in the future is the use of technology. Today, police organizations have access to a wide range of technological tools, and they are continually advancing and improving. Some of these include records management systems, computer-aided dispatch, GPS technology, license plate readers, biometrics (facial recognition software, for example), crime mapping via geographical information systems, and less-than-lethal weapons (Tasers, beanbag rounds, tear gas,

CPS is doing everything wrong. There are so many problems with the foster care systems. One of the huge conflicts has to do with how CPS is too focused on rules and protocols. Foster parents and discipline their kids other than putting them in time out. Which is causing kids to go to jail, recent data indicates that children in foster care are most likely to have criminal behavior(Smith, Children Laws) Caseworkers have way too many kids on their case therefore they can’t get the proper amount of attention.

However, there are major problems in the Foster care/ Adoption system and many children continue too many years in foster care without a permanency plan. According to The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Adoption and Foster care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) from October 1, 2007 through September 30, 2008, there were 123,000 waiting to be adopted. Currently there are 200,000 plus children in foster care nationally. Many have been in continuous foster care for as long as 2-3 1/2 years. (1.) Initially children are placed into the foster care system because of high risk safety factors which determines how the government will respond. What’s not clear at the time is that the child may have underlining problems- mental health issues, truancy, juvenile delinquency. Once placed in foster care if the issues are not detected and the case management plans do not address the underlining problems they may be aggravated and increase the severity of the child’s conditions/ behavior. (2.) Many times agencies and case managers do not have access to information and files that their counterparts have even when they are involved in the same case because of

On September 11, 2001, there were 2,996 casualties and more than 6,000 others were injured in the terroristic attacks of the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Some may say that these acts of terrorism changed the American homeland security for the better, others disagree. Since the events of September 11, 2001, the Department of Homeland Security was created and expanded into one of the largest divisions of the federal government. This paper consists of the lack of homeland security before September 11, 2001, the creation of the Department of Homeland Security, and the development of this department, which is leading America to be safer since the last act of terrorism.

Public policing is responsible for the actions of assisting the public and society to ensure the safety of individuals. Most public organizations assist private organizations because of the lack of equipment and sometimes staff availability required for some areas of security. Most private security organizations acquire most public officials with training because of the higher paid officials who leave the public agencies to grow and expand. Most public organizations protect the public just like private organizations but still have jurisdictions and private property not in contract to assist in certain situations. Most private organizations will contact public organizations for assistance if an emergency arises and assistance is necessary to control and isolate the situation.