Tuesday, Nov. 21, 2006

LETHAL LAPSES: Is there a better way to protect children?

COLUMBIA - The police chief said it looked like child abuse.

The Illinois Department of Children and Family Services ruled that it wasn't and closed its case in July.

Between these viewpoints concerning the alleged physical abuse of a 4-year-old Columbia girl lies the question: Do DCFS workers know how to properly investigate child abuse?

Law enforcement officials say police officers would do a better job. They say child abuse investigators don't know how to find people, interview accused abusers or recognize evidence.

But Illinois and national child protection advocates say the DCFS does all it can to protect children with staffs that are often overwhelmed by high caseloads and the difficulties of getting at the truth.

The News-Democrat found that 53 children died between September 1998 and January 2005 after DCFS workers and employees of contracted private agencies committed serious errors, made questionable judgments, and failed to follow department regulations.

A former state senator from Southern Illinois said the solution to preventing child protection worker error in cases where children die lies with the public.

"The public has got to be the one that brings about change. The agency is not going to change," said Ned Mitchell, D-Sesser. "And the politicians aren't going to change until people get upset enough about these kids dying that they demand somebody do something about it."

In 2001, at Mitchell's urging, the state spent $25,000 on an outside study of the effectiveness of DCFS caseworkers, investigators and field supervisors after the deaths of three children in Southern Illinois.

Mitchell called the findings of the study disappointing.

The case involving the 4-year-old Columbia girl illustrates the difficulty of investigating child abuse cases.

The child's father, George J. Schneider, 26, pleaded guilty to a domestic battery misdemeanor charge and received a $200 fine. Authorities dropped a second charge of violating an order of protection.

Schneider admitted through his plea that in May he "struck, slapped and spanked" his daughter in a public parking lot, according to Monroe County Circuit Court records.

Despite the guilty plea, DCFS closed its case in July, according to a letter to Columbia Police Chief Joe Edwards from Linda Everett Williams, director of the State Central Register, which oversees operation of the state child abuse hot line.

The child protection investigator assigned to the case "was unable to document credible evidence of child abuse or neglect," Williams said in her letter.

Edwards protested, and recently he succeeded in getting the Belleville office of the DCFS to reopen its child abuse investigation of Schneider.

"Judging from the 911 calls we received on this and the observations of the police officers, we believe there needs to be a full investigation of whether this child is in danger of being abused," Edwards said. He declined to give details because the investigation is ongoing.

George Schneider and the girl's mother, Brandy Schneider, are separated, but there is nothing to prevent him from having contact with the girl, Edwards said.

George Schneider could not be reached for comment.

Brandy Schneider said her husband's punishment didn't fit the crime.

"If you hurt a dog, you go to jail," she said. "If you hurt a child, you get fined $200. A child doesn't seem to matter."

But Brandy Schneider said she was not being critical of the DCFS' handling of the case.

"It's not always DCFS that's to blame. People are afraid to speak out. They're afraid for themselves and their children," she said.

Should police investigate?

St. Clair County Sheriff Mearl Justus said that in his opinion, police can do a better job of investigating child abuse allegations than DCFS employees.

"I think overall they don't have a police background. They don't have training (and) I don't believe the ability to investigate," he said.

Justus suggested the state agency consider hiring retired police officers for the key job of determining whether a child can safely be left in a home where abuse is suspected or confirmed.

Former Centreville Police Chief Curtis McCall said he believes that DCFS mistakes in metro-east child abuse cases have led to children's deaths.

"As the chief of police, there were numerous occasions where I felt the DCFS could have possibly acted and prevented the lives of children being lost, and instead they dropped the ball," said McCall, now the Centreville Township supervisor.

"I would say that probably with a little more training, police officers would do a better job than DCFS investigators," he said.

The DCFS' top administrator, Director Bryan Samuels, declined to comment, according to Kendall Marlowe, deputy chief of communications.

But David Kauzlarich, a criminal justice professor, said he doesn't believe that police officers would do a better job than educated and properly trained DCFS workers.

Kauzlarich, chairman of the Department of Sociology and Criminal Justice Studies at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, said the question instead should be: "Does DCFS have enough resources to put enough people out on the street, because we know, like probation officers, they have a very high caseload."

In the DCFS' southern region, which includes the metro-east and all of Southern Illinois, there are approximately 99 caseworkers and 70 child protection investigators working out of 20 field offices. The total number of cases they handle was unavailable.

Regarding child death cases where DCFS workers erred, Kauzlarich said: "There's always, in any work environment, people who are not as productive, as efficient or as successful as others. One thing is, what is their success rate? I wonder how many success stories are out there."

Madison County Sheriff Robert Hertz said when he worked as the head of detectives for his department a decade ago, he viewed DCFS workers as merely conveyors of information. Some were incapable of identifying a violent suspect, he said.

"I looked at them as being nothing but glorified operators, so to speak, in taking information and providing it to the police," he said. "They just didn't have it. ... They have no expertise in investigating crimes."

But Barbara Rawn, with the National Committee to Prevent Child Abuse in Washington, D.C., said raising DCFS worker efficiency depends on fielding more workers. And that requires more funding from the state legislature.

"The General Assembly has to figure out how we are going to hire people who are competent. How are we going to make sure they're well-trained?" she said, adding, "How are we as a society going to step up to the plate?"

Contact reporters George Pawlaczyk at gpawlaczyk@bnd.com or 239-2625 and Beth Hundsdorfer at bhundsdorfer@bnd.com or 239-2570.