Child abuse unit an election issue

• Share on
• 
• 
• 
• 

The performance of the department charged with investigating claims of child abuse has become an election issue in the race for Erie County executive – and for good reason – Jim Heaney says in the latest video edition of Outrages & Insights.

Charlotte Keith of Investigative Post broke a story in July that resulted in the performance of Child Protective Services becoming an election issue. She documented heavy workloads and delays in completing investigations.

Heaney told Steve Brown that CPS was troubled prior to the election of Mark Poloncarz as county executive four years ago and the department has shown signs of progress over the past year. But the department is still falling far short of performance benchmarks set by the state.

“I think particularly troubling is Poloncarz – publicly, anyways – would not acknowledge there is a problem,” Heaney told Brown.