It’s repugnant and SOP (standard operating procedure) in contested custody cases and often as the first step to begin an ugly divorce. The well known and commonly used strategy is called Silver Bullet because of how effective it can be.
Silver Bullet
The Silver Bullet strategy includes a vindictive, angry, or narcissistic parent calling CPS and or the police to file a false report of child abuse and or domestic violence. We’ll stick with CPS for this post. The call is made not with the intent of reporting a true child safety concern, but with the ill intent to gain a court advantage in a contested custody case. When made with ill-intent, the report is either entirely false or greatly exaggerated to create bias against that parent with CPS case managers and potentially a judge.
Once the report is made, long before it’s evaluated by a case manager or adjudicated by a court, the vindictive parent will repeat the allegation to file for a TPO (temporary protection order). TPO’s are quickly granted simply on the allegation without requiring any evidence or substantiation to support, a simple claim that you’re afraid works. With the TPO granted, the accused, without any semblance of due process is immediately cut off from the kids and restrained from the marital home.
It’s disgusting, repugnant, and a form of domestic violence that is condoned and allowed by courts and CPS. Worse still are the villains who masquerade as “child protection or victim rights” advocates who are pushing policies to legitimize false allegations and weaponizing child welfare. These villains don’t want better protections for children or families, they want to protect their ability to use the Silver Bullet and not be questioned or challenged if they don’t want dad in the picture.
Villains in Public Policy
These villains and the policies they advocate for are the fundamental, foundational, and root cause reason why are systems are so broken and not being fixed. These villains leverage the false narratives of DV (men are abusers, women are victims) to mislead policymakers into thinking that if a woman claims abuse or to be afraid, we must believe her, take her at her word, and protect her from harm without question.
Most policymakers are hardwired to protect women and children and don’t really think, because of the false narrative most believe to be true, that men need the same protections as women. So, when policymakers hear a woman claim to be a victim and to please protect her and her child from evil and abusive man, they try to do what they believe is right. Unfortunately, they ignore the data and dismiss the possibility a vindictive parent is using a Silver Bullet to deny their child a loving parent.
The conundrum policymakers are faced with is that villains (some child protection, victim rights advocates) don’t want to set any truth bar or test (substance or evidence) for an allegation to be made. Villains claim that setting any truth test will only make it harder for a victim to file a report. Villains want their allegations to be acted upon without question and let the chips fall where they may as there is no downside for the accuser. Villains don’t want protections. They want a reliable weapon they can use at will to abuse the other parent (and children even though they won’t acknowledge that) without question or accountability.
California and Texas have passed laws on anonymous CPS callers in a minimal effort to stop some (a very small percentage) from weaponizing child welfare. Colorado villains blocked similar efforts last year. This year, Colorado villains are promoting a child welfare bill that is intended to legitimize and expand malicious (false) reporting and encourage more vindictive parents to use that weapon of choice.
Contact Your Legislator
HB24-1046 Concerning Measures to Enhance Child Welfare System Tools requires CPS to ask CPS hotline callers about domestic violence. Already, the current practice if the caller brings up domestic violence is that CPS will triage and deal with call as appropriate. If DV is a concern to the caller, they are going to bring it up. The intent behind asking about DV isn’t to improve child protection, it’s to prompt the caller to expand on their allegation. It’s trying to legitimize false allegations of abuse so that they will have the intended effect, biased against the accused. The bill as currently written will increase the frequency of vindictive parents weaponizing child welfare and harming their own children in the process.
Please contact your legislator and let them know you are opposed to parents weaponizing CPS.
House Prime Sponsors are:
Majority Leader Monica Duran – monic.duran.house@coleg.gov
Representative Gabe Evans – gabe.evans.house@coleg.gov
Senate Prime Sponsors are:
Senator Chris Kolker – chris.kolker.senate@coleg.gov
Senator Barbara Kirkmeyer – Barbara.kirkmeyer@coleg.gov
