Have you ever asked yourself, or someone else, this question? Have you ever wondered how, or why, CPS has the right to just step in and literally tear families apart with no regard for the long term consequences, or the possible effects on those people’s lives? How can they take those kids away from the only parents they’ve ever known? How can they literally kidnap kids and give them into the care of total strangers?

If you said yes to any of these questions, then you need to know that you’re not alone. Countless people over the years have asked the same question. But they rarely, if ever get an answer they’re satisfied with. So we figured we’d try to explain some of that here. Maybe it’ll help, maybe not. 

From a legal standpoint: What the law says about what CPS can do:

Michigan law allows a CPS worker to remove a child from it’s home, without a judge’s order, when they believe that child has been abused or neglected and they are in imminent danger of further abuse or neglect. Which sounds completely reasonable, when you think about it. After all, what person in their right mind would leave a defenseless child in a situation where they’re likely to be abused or neglected? 

The problem comes when you leave the interpretation of what constitutes child abuse and neglect up to individual CPS workers. Sometimes it’s obvious – a drunk parent using their 9-year-old as target practice. And sometimes it’s not – a small and slender child in a home where there isn’t much food in the kitchen cupboards. Is the child malnourished, or are they simply littler than their peers due to genetics? And how can a CPS worker accurately tell one from the other? The answer is: they often can’t, which is why so many families get torn apart.

From an ethical standpoint: How can CPS workers justify tearing families apart?

Police officers who arrest someone they believe has committed a crime aren’t “bad guys” – they’re just doing their jobs and trying to make the communities they serve safer, even if they don’t always go about it the right way. In the same way, CPS workers aren’t “evil people” who are trying to destroy families and tear children away from their parents. They’re doing what they believe is the best option. They’re just sometimes wrong.

Very few CPS workers show up at a home with the desire to cause emotional damage to parents and children. They want to help. They want to save kids from abusive situations. The problem lies in the fact that they can’t always tell good from bad, or right from wrong, and they’re so full of their own preconceived notions about what’s going on, that they get blinded to the truth. So what can seem perfectly reasonable to them is actually ridiculous in reality. It’s just that they can’t see the forest for the trees. It clouds their judgement.

Whatever their motivations, families are damaged along the way…

Don’t allow a misguided CPS worker to step in and wreck your family, simply because they don’t see the big picture in your home, or don’t understand your parenting style. Having an experienced and aggressive CPS defense attorney on your team can make a world of difference to how CPS treats you, and how many liberties they take with your kids. So if CPS has come knocking on your door, or threatened to take your kids away, call The Kronzek Firm at 866 766 5245 today and protect your kids and yourselves.