Georgia raises concerns about DFCs that are looking for expanded powers for investigations

“This year we have had many new discussions that sound new to me that DFCs will become a law enforcement agency or have responsibility for law enforcement authorities,” said State Margaret Oliver last week in a hearing of the committee.

Oliver, D-Decatur, said that the change could threaten the long-term relationships between DFCs and law enforcement authorities and put them into conflicts that the agency is authorized to investigate crimes in local jurisdiction.

Candice Broce, Commissioner of the Department of Human Services, said that the changes would help the case workers and the agency to perform their tasks and to improve communication between DFCs and law enforcement authorities.

“I recently founded the DHS department for special victims, which I worked directly with the law enforcement authorities in Georgia to better serve Georgia's most marginalized children,” said Broce last week during a meeting of the youth committee.

The newly established unit mainly focuses on cases in which several jurisdiction and other complex cases in which crimes against children are involved exceed, said Broce.

Critics are concerned that the extended powers of Senate Act 8 youth court judges in the future could be used by the special unit of the DFCS special victims to carry out arrests, but Broce denies that the bill has something to do with their agency.

She also said that the children's aid authority did not try to found a law enforcement authority and that the Special victim unit coordinates with the police.

A week earlier, Oliver Broce interviewed during a hearing from the HR withdrawal committee and asked why DFCs needed additional funds for unit.

“You said there was no budget for the Special victim unit. But now it seems to be $ 1.7 million,” she said.

Broce said, although she has never applied for the financing, she estimates the recommendation of the house and sees it as a sign that the agency improves.

DFCS has a restless history of mismanagement, lack of personnel and the widespread systematic breakdown. In 2022, the Ombudsman of the State of Child care wrote a memo in which several problems were plagued before neglect after an examination of the death of a child. DHS did not agree to the memo, but the agency has struggled with the level of personnel since the Covid 19 pandemic.

Oliver also questioned Broce on an invoice that would enable DFCS workers to have sexually explicit materials from minors – house bill 435. These materials are often examined with the help of law enforcement.

According to the law of Georgia, case workers are treated in the possession of child abuse material like any other in the possession of child pornography and could be under fines and 20 years in prison. However, the DHS commissioner said that in some cases the workers are in the possession of child abuse material while examining cases and having legal protective measures.

“The reality is that we examine sexual abuse and actually receive some of these materials,” said Broce. “And that means that a case manager literally violates the law, unless you can find a way to work with law enforcement authorities and try to get a sign to prevent possible prison.”

Rep. Charlice Byrd, R-Woodstock, said she was skeptical about the intentions of DFCs. If the suggestions have passed, it would probably only rely on a plaster on the mismanagement of the children's aid agency, she said.

Byrd said she saw how DFCs have had problems in the past two decades to manage cases of child abuse without real improvement. What the agency uses is not the solution, partly because it enters the area of law enforcement, she said.

These efforts result after a devastating federal investigation of DFCs, which gave indications of mismanagement and systematic errors.

Last year, the subcommittee of the US judicial committee of the US Justice Committee for Human Rights and the law, chaired by Senator Jon Ossoff, completed systematic failures in the children's aid authority to the death of children throughout the state.

In a statement, a DFCS spokesman said the agency undertook steps by the special sacrifices and other measures in order to be “a better and more reactionable partner for law enforcement”.

Both SB 8 and HB 435 are set for votes in the home chamber.