Keeping tabs on children in foster care hasn't been easy for the Department of Children Services, and officials hope the hiring of a "top cop," will help the agency track children through the legal system.
Secretary Bob Butterworth announced that Ed Hardy was hired as the department's new director of Criminal Justice Services. He will serve as a lead contact for the department when it comes to law enforcement, corrections, juvenile justice and the courts.
Recent DCF mishaps showed the need for the position, officials said.
In June DCF learned that Courtney Clark, a Pinellas County girl in custody of the state who was eventually found in squalid conditions in Wisconsin, had been missing for four months without it being reported to law enforcement. There was also a reported rape of an 8-year-old boy in foster care in Dade County.
Lawmakers have not been happy about the care of foster care children in Florida.
State Sen. Nan Rich, D-Weston, proposed the creation of a special legislative committee to investigate living conditions for children in state custody and foster care.
"It is clear we are having a problem keeping children in state custody safe," Rich wrote Senate President Ken Pruitt, R-Port St. Lucie, last summer.
In a statement, Butterworth said, "We work closely with law enforcement in so many aspects of our operations, including child protective investigations and the search for missing children, but the Clark case exposed weaknesses on our end that revealed the need for a 'top cop.'"
Hardy is a graduate of the Federal Bureau of Investigation National Academy and the Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent Academy. He has more than 30 years of law enforcement experience.