> If they don’t learn to ignore them - that sounds like lawsuit territory
It's the reverse. CPS could be found liable if they ignored a report where there were indeed problems.
Also, I have family that work in CPS and it's really not the bad guy everyone that's "anti-CPS" seems to think. They have a HIGH bar to go over before they'll remove kids from a home. Things have to be particularly bad. And even then, the organization is slanted to get the kids back into the home ASAP. The state doesn't want to have to take care of kids.
Most of the time, it's work with the parents to make the environment safe.
If a single report from a source of unknown credibility is enough to send agents to upend an innocent person’s life, then that system is broken. The same is true for swatting. A single phone call should not result in an armed police response.
CPS agents didn't come in guns ablaze (that aren't armed). It's a simple investigation and interview with the parents.
It's quite literally the same thing as a cop checking up on someone for a reported domestic disturbance.
It's not as instant jail sentence or separation of parents from their kids.
Like I said, those are literally tools of last resort. Things have to be really bad. Like, for example, a kid that shows up with bruises and stories of violence from the parents won't instantly be removed. That's how far CPS bends over to avoid family separation. The research is pretty clear that family separation is about the worst thing you can do to a kid. That's why instead CPS generally will deploy things like mandatory therapy (if that). Or life skills lessons. And that's assuming they see major problems at the initial interview. If it's a false claim the actual most likely thing that will happen is they'll show up and say "looks like a false claim" and leave, probably ignoring future reports.
Family separation is the most extreme outcome. There is a long spectrum of stress and uncertainty between "CPS merely knocks on your door and leaves" and "Forcible family separation." You really don't want to land anywhere on that spectrum. Encounters with the government and law enforcement tend to escalate depending on how busy/belligerent/bored their agents are, so what might be a routine "checking up" today can snowball into a series of more and more serious encounters and harassment as time goes by.
I'm not really anti-CPS as much as I'm anti unnecessary involvement with unaccountable people who can wreck other people's lives.
> depending on how busy/belligerent/bored their agents are
Or on how caring, responsible, and capable they are. You're making a lot of assumptions about a lot of people.
People say these things casually but let me point out that it's not at all trivial: Demonization is the first step used by the right-wing to oppress and harm people: Democrats, liberals, LGBTQ (esp trans people), immigrants, FBI, CDC, any regulators, high-ranking government officials in national defense, government workers, city residents in blue states (when will the National Guard be sent in?), ...
The casual spread of such ideas, which makes them more insidious because few people notice their significance, is a big part of demonization.
It's the reverse. CPS could be found liable if they ignored a report where there were indeed problems.
Also, I have family that work in CPS and it's really not the bad guy everyone that's "anti-CPS" seems to think. They have a HIGH bar to go over before they'll remove kids from a home. Things have to be particularly bad. And even then, the organization is slanted to get the kids back into the home ASAP. The state doesn't want to have to take care of kids.
Most of the time, it's work with the parents to make the environment safe.