Arizona CPS Uses Police-State Tactics to Kidnap Safe Children

Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS), under fire for its skyrocketing rate of child removals in recent years, was just exposed for a new policy which allowed social workers to secretly record interviews with parents or caregivers suspected of crimes using a controversial and questionable technology meant to detect lying. The Computer Voice Stress Analyzer (CVSA), which a DCS spokesperson labeled a “new tool,” isn’t really new at all, and appears to have almost zero validity. One independent study found the lie detector was "no better than flipping a coin." The CVSA policy had only been recently implemented late last December. Gregg Woodnick, a Phoenix family law attorney whose practice defends families against DCS charges, unearthed the new policy and after confronting DCS legal counsel, notified local TV station 12 News. Woodnick said DCS was effectively performing polygraphs on people without their consent. After 12 News notified Arizona’s DCS they were doing a story on the secret recordings, an agency spokeswoman, Cynthia Weiss, said the policy was being "rescinded." The covert audio story, which broke March 20, ran a week after Health Impact News/Medical Kidnap interviewed Woodnick to discuss the state of Arizona’s DCS.