(The Center Square) – In the wake of the murder of a Department of Children and Family Services investigator, hearings are once again being held on the safety of case workers. 

Deidre Silas was stabbed to death Jan. 4 when she responded to a call of possible endangerment of children in Thayer, south of Springfield. A man related to one or more of the six children who were home at the time, 32-year-old Ben Reed, is being held in the Sangamon County jail on first-degree murder charges.  

According to DCFS, the attack on Silas marked the 21st time since 2017 that case workers were subject to threats or acts of violence during 2.5 million home visits in Illinois.  

During a Senate Health Committee hearing, Mitchell Davis, president of the Illinois Association of Chiefs of Police, said DCFS workers are put in difficult situations.

“DCFS workers, like police officers, respond to calls for service when things are often at their worst and all other means of resolution have been exhausted,” Davis said.   

Police agencies historically have been willing to help with DCFS visits. That cooperation strengthened after a case worker’s death in 2017. A law signed in 2018 allows law enforcement officers to cross into another jurisdiction to back up a home visit.  

Gabe Nagy, a DCFS case worker in the Quincy office, said knowledge of any criminal history regarding a client would be beneficial for investigators.  

“We believe an asset for our front-line workers would be DCFS having access to a real-time criminal database,” Nagy said. “Information before the reports are provided to the investigator to assess any possible safety threats based on criminal history.”

Newly hired investigators must successfully complete a six-week training session that includes safety precautions.  

Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s proposed 2023 budget allocates millions of dollars to DCFS to address staffing shortages by hiring hundreds of additional employees and providing training.