Newport News adds social workers to police department to ease burden on child and adult protective services

Daily Press - 8/24/2021

The Newport News Police Department hired two social workers who will respond to certain calls overnight to reduce wait times and eliminate some of the burden on child and adult protective services caseworkers.

The social workers — who will be paid from the police department’s budget — started responding to calls with police in early August in cases of domestic violence and cases of potential abuse or neglect of children, people older than 60 and incapacitated adults.

“We’re very optimistic about this whole effort,” said Venerria Thomas, director of the Department of Human Services. “It’s unique — I’m not aware of this model being used in exactly this fashion anywhere else in the state.”

The social workers will also help if a child has nowhere to go when a parent is arrested.

“Now, I have direct and immediate access to help get an elderly person or child into foster care or a care facility,” said Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew. “I have social workers who are trained by our Human Services division that are here at the hours we need them and can make things better.”

Thomas joined Human Services about seven years ago. Before that, she worked in Florida, where state and law enforcement handle child welfare activities and investigations. In Virginia, cities and counties are responsible for creating their own protective services following laws and guidelines from the state.

The city used to have one supervisor and one caseworker on call each night, Thomas said. Most nights they would have to respond to several calls.

“We’ve had challenges retaining competent CPS workers because of the schedules that are involved. They have to serve on-call nighttime duties, and it’s difficult for some of them to be able to do that,” Thomas said.

“Sometimes the job can be a little risky because you do get called into volatile situations,” she added. “It is comforting to have staff members available to us who are trained in safety and other techniques that help to make the job a little bit easier to manage.”

A busy night or a complicated call could mean a child protective services worker would have to work all night on a case but still be expected to appear in court the next day, Thomas said.

The social workers hired by the police department underwent most of the training child protective services workers receive, but they don’t have the same authority.

A child protective services worker will still be on-call but will only respond to the most extreme cases, Thomas said. The police department’s social workers will be able to conduct the initial assessments at the scene and create a referral that human services can address in the morning.

“These positions represent a hybrid of expertise. These are people that are not sworn law enforcement, but they are trained in some police tactics, investigation efforts and philosophy,” Thomas said. “They also have training in social work — abuse and neglect responses. They are able to coach the police officers that are there and respond as well as take notes of vital information for our social service professionals.”

Before adding the social workers to the department, Drew said that officers could spend hours at a scene overnight waiting for help from caseworkers.

Child Protective Services in Newport News received 2,942 referrals from July 1, 2019, to June 30, 2020, according to the Virginia Department of Social Services.

Once a caseworker responds to an incident, the agency determines if a case meets the legal definition of child abuse or neglect. It then has the authority to conduct a family assessment or an investigation.

“This is a way to take a step toward merging the expertise for each type of service in a way that really benefits us both, and of course the families involved,” Thomas said.

Drew says the social workers are part of the department’s efforts to diversify the resources available when police aren’t always the best option. The department added two full-time domestic violence advocates in early 2020. It also partnered with the Newport News Fire Department and Hampton-Newport News Community Services Board in July to launch the Community Assistance Response, or CARE Program, to respond to mental health calls.

“I think as we move forward and have the conversation about how we police our communities better — reimagining law enforcement — I think it’s about building stronger collaboratives and resources,” Drew said. “So often things get pushed back on law enforcement because we are here 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and some of the other entities don’t work those hours. There are a lot of things that happen after 5 o’clock.”

Jessica Nolte, 757-912-1675, jnolte@dailypress.com