Nassau County hires ex-cops, detectives to probe child abuse cases
Nassau County is enlisting ex-cops and detectives as special investigators to look into child abuse cases in an effort to help out the overwhelmed Department of Social Services, officials said.
Four new investigators, including a former police detective and parole officer, are joining the ranks of a first-in-New York program County Executive Bruce Blakeman launched in 2023 to fast-track the local needs of Child Protective Services.
Blakeman said during a recent press conference that the end goal is to “help reduce the caseload” for CPS workers, who are inundated with “a voluminous amount.”
“It’s incumbent upon us to make sure these children are safe. That’s job No. 1,” he added, calling their responsibility “God’s work.”
The program’s other members, who were given an expedited six-week training to aid case workers by probing family situations, include both detectives and fire marshalls, in addition to more police, parole, and corrections officers.
Their background checks are also accelerated compared to what Blakeman said usually takes up to a year.
Nassau saw a 25% dip in DSS cases between 2023 and 2024 in a difference of 1,077 vs. 805, he added.
In 2024, the volume of overdue investigations “decreased significantly” from 29.7% to 19.75%, and 33.3% of workers managed 15 or fewer cases compared to 20.5% the year prior.
The next milestone is having case workers handle 12 at a time, a more reasonable “standard” workload, according to the executive.
“The bottom line is we want to keep that number as low as possible.”
Blakeman announced the new additions just before the fifth anniversary of the death of 8-year-old Thomas Valva on Jan. 17, 2020.
The autistic Center Moriches boy died of hypothermia after he was forced to sleep in a frigid garage by his disgraced NYPD father, Michael Valva. The little boy’s 10-year-old brother, Anthony, was also forced into the freezing room but survived.
In April, Suffolk County District Attorney Ray Tierney released a scathing report claiming CPS neglected blatant warning signs that could have saved Valva’s life.
“One of the really troubling things was that there had been a tremendous number of teachers and individuals who reported this to CPS,” Blakeman said. “Alarms and whistles should have gone off.”
