Gov. Jan Brewer is starting to become annoyed with what she calls the "Monday Morning Quarterbacking" she said is taking place over the more than 6,000 cases of child abuse Child Protective Services failed to investigate. Still, she said she understands the public outrage over the issue.
“Absolutely I understand,” Brewer said. “I was upset, I was distraught. I’m concerned. I am angry, but that’s not going to get to the basis and to the bottom of the issue that we’re confronting.”
Brewer said we need to resist forming opinions on what happened at CPS until the investigations into the problems there have been completed.
The governor’s press aide, Andrew Wilder, said at least some of the reports said cases were being handled through an alternative process, which he said may have been intentionally misleading,
“It's unreasonable to expect that the reader of this report would conclude that thousands of legitimate reports of child abuse and neglect were not being investigated,” Wilder said.
Department of Economic Security Director Clarence Carter said it was no surprise to him that not all complaints of abuse to Child Protective Services were investigated. Carter said DES has been telling lawmakers and the governor for years that some cases were not investigated. Carter told Capitol Media Services that DES has been issuing semi-annual reports detailing how many complaints were marked as not being responded to.
“The report is written in a way that a reasonable person could raise the question of ‘what does not responded mean?’” Carter said. “Because if this means that we didn't do anything about this case, then how does that happen?”
Carter admits the alternate investigations that were supposed to take place did not.