Arizona Governor Jan Brewer announced on Thursday that the last of the ‘Not Investigated’ cases of potential child abuse or neglect that were discovered in November 2013 have been investigated and officially closed. Under Brewer, Child Protective Services neglected to investigate over 6,500 reports of neglect and abuse.
After her administration’s neglect was revealed Brewer moved to create a new bureaucracy rather than reform the existing agency.
That’s the final report of a special team which was created last year to figure out — and deal with — the fact that almost 6,600 complaints to Child Protective Services over several years never were investigated.
“While it is disheartening that this crisis existed at all, I am proud of – and Arizona is grateful for – everyone who had a hand in the completion of these cases and the safety of these children. Now, with the establishment of the new Department of Child Safety (DCS) we can continue our work to make certain that nothing like this happens again,” said the Governor.
The CARE Team was created by Brewer to provide oversight of the investigations.
“We’re just not out of the woods yet,” Rep. Kate Brophy McGee told Capitol Media Services. According to Brophy McGee there still is a backlog of cases.