According to a Lansing State Journal article, published in May of 2017, they had uncovered evidence of at least three Michigan counties where CPS supervisors allegedly intentionally logged inaccurate data about active, ongoing abuse cases. Why? Because, according to a number of current and previous employees the LSJ interviewed, supervisors were trying to make it look like the agency was in compliance with a federal court order, when in fact they weren’t.
Wait, what!? Our thoughts exactly. It certainly sounded plausible when the accusations hit the news. After all, CPS has a long history of fabricating evidence to support its own claims, so this really didn’t come as such a surprise to us. However now, according to new information published by LSJ, those claims were actually inaccurate and there’s no evidence that CPS managers manipulated case data.
The allegations have been under review for almost a year now!
Those were very serious allegations, and so the investigation started almost immediately. But a year later the court monitors assigned to review all of the data in this investigation reported that, essentially, there was nothing to report. Allegations that supervisors in at least seven Michigan counties has assigned cases to workers who were on extended leave in order to make the case load distribution seem a little less “overloaded” were apparently unfounded.
The court monitors from the New Jersey firm Public Catalyst, stood in court before U.S. District Judge Nancy Edmunds and announced that they were satisfied that there hadn’t been any tweaking of numbers when it came to case data. And no evidence that CPS was trying to make itself look better in the eyes of the federal court, or fake compliance with the federal lawsuit. There were many rumors, they said, but nothing could be verified.
If there was so much smoke, where’s the fire?
Well, as it turns out, there wasn’t a total absence of problems. The investigation did reveal that CPS had VASTLY underreported the number of kids who had been abused or neglected while in foster care in 2016. CPS claims it had been 77 children, but the paperwork showed that it was actually 101 children. So almost a third of the total had been eliminated.
How did that happen? According to the court monitors, the likely culprit is the super-glitchy, multi-million dollar computer system the state has build for CPS a couple of years ago. In response to this information, Judge Edwards gave state officials 60 days to develop a plan for an independent expert to come in review the database’s problems. (Maybe if we throw enough money at it, the problems will go away?)
Michigan CPS seems to have an endless litany of problems.
CPS here in the Mitten State seems to be constantly under fire. Their database, which cost the state millions of dollars, has caused more problems than it’s solved. There are endless rumors swirling about mismanagement of cases and falsified data. And CPS workers themselves seem to make the news regularly for screwing up high profile cases. It certainly paints a picture of general ineptitude, regardless of what may have come out of this investigation.
As experienced CPS defense attorneys, we have gone head to head with CPS many times over the last few decades. We know how loose their relationship with the facts can be, and how easily they turn to bullying tactics and threats to get what they want. If you or a loved one have been contacted by CPS, call The Kronzek Firm immediately at 866 766 5245 and speak to someone who can help you make sense of this enormous mess, and achieve the best possible results for your case!