But he seemed so nice

A woman working for the Tuscon, AZ branch of Child Protection Services fought to help a man keep contact with his children. The man was reportedly abusive, and the oldest child had asked for help in the case. Oddly enough, one of the reasons why the CPS officer had fought to keep the father connected to his children was because (drum roll, please) she was dating him at the time.

This was in 2004.

So it should come as no surprise that the CPS changed it's policy regarding caseworkers dating the people they're investigating, to no longer allow it to happen. Okay, it should come as a little bit of a surprise, only in the notion that the CPS didn't outlaw this sort of activity before. But darnit, they took action, and they made sure that no future CPS caseworker could date the potentially abusive person that they were checking into.

And their change was largely based off of this case. It only took them three years and the general public learning about it to get them to change their tune.

Seriously? Child Protection Services didn't realize it was a bad idea when this happened at the time? They didn't think that it might be detrimental to the children they were charged with protecting to have their agents dating those under investigation? And they didn't correct their error as quickly as possible once it reached the light of day?

This is no giving children alcohol in a sippy-cup. This is leaving them in a dangerous situation, just because one of the CPS case-workers happened to get a bit of a flutter in their pants over their quarry. And it certainly shouldn't have taken the public getting involved before they changed their policies.

After all, the public doesn't have the best track record for paying attention to detail. Just look at the election of 2004 for proof.