But to lawmen like Drew Pilkington and Jason Hinds, the women who investigate child abuse allegations for the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services are the front line fighters in a war against gangs and drugs.
Pilkington, a sergeant with the Texas Department of Public Safety’s Criminal Intelligence Service, and Hinds, a deputy lieutenant and investigator for Bee County Sheriff Carlos Carrizales, spoke to a group of a dozen such investigators Thursday at the Child Protective Service offices at 1800 S. Washington, St.
“A lot of times it’s real dangerous,” Hinds said of career the women have chosen, “because they go into these homes without law enforcement.”
The CPS investigators attending the class visit homes throughout Bee, Live Oak, McMullen and Refugio counties, often walking into places where notorious prison gang members and drug dealers live.
Pilkington, who has access to the DPS’ information on prison gangs, had lots of tips for the investigators.
He showed the women a list of the known prison gangs operating in Texas and the Southwest United States, showed them slides of the kind of symbols gang members use to identify themselves to other gang members and provided them with detailed descriptions of the kind of jailhouse tattoos gang members have on their bodies.
“Gangs use a lot of codes,” Pilkington explained. Those include the logos of college football teams.
“Most of them, these guys, they haven’t been to college,” Pilkington told the investigators.
“Most people have photos of their kids on the wall,” Hinds said. “Well, these guys don’t. They have photos of their idols.”
Pilkington said most gang members try to disguise their symbols so that people will not recognize their gang affiliations. But he showed them how to recognize what the tattoos and logos mean.
Most gang tattoos are done in black ink, Pilkington said, because the gangsters get them in prison where there are no colored inks.
“Y’all keep in mind that when you visit those houses, those people aren’t interested in their kids,” Hinds cautioned.
Hinds showed the investigators what to look for to identify drug use in the homes they visit. He passed around examples of different illegal narcotics so the women would know what they look like.
He also passed around syringes, pipes and other paraphernalia that drug addicts use.
Hinds spent most of his early law enforcement career here working undercover.
“Y’all may have seen me before,” he told the investigators. “But I had a beard, long hair and earrings.”
Hinds said he and Pilkington spent about two hours with the CPS investigators, showing them what they needed to know to identify criminal activity when they see it.
“They’re what you call first responders,” Hinds said of the women. They are the first state authorities to enter the homes of lawbreakers when the state receives complaints of possible child abuse or neglect.
Hinds said that under the direction of Sheriff Carrizales, the BCSO has built a great relationship with the DPS.
“Now, we’re moving on to the CPS. What they see and hear can make our jobs a lot easier and we can then help them to better protect South Texas children from the influences of their parents who are involved in drugs and gangs.”
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