(Image source from: Can you really trust Arizona child abuse hotline?)

Around 6,000 cases of child abuse and neglect reported in the statewide hotline in Arizona over the last four years have gone uninvestigated. That raises the big question - what is Arizona state officials doing?

Seems that a team at Arizona's Child Protective Services agency sidelined most such cases as "N.I."- meaning 'Not Investigated' - 'to help manage the heavy workload and focus on the most severe cases', revealed Clarence Carter, chief of the state's child welfare system.

However, as per the state law, all hotline cases must be investigated, Carter said.

Apprehending this, the officials promised to review all the pending cases. Nearly 125 cases have been identified in which children have undergone abuse.

“I don't know of any fatalities,'' Gregory McKay, the agency's chief of child welfare investigations, said of the botched cases. “No one has been disciplined, but Arizona's Department of Public Safety will investigate.”

“There must be accountability in this matter, and I will insist on further reforms to make sure that it cannot happen again,'' Gov. Jan Brewer said.

“The practice of misclassifying the cases and essentially closing them started in 2009,” Carter said.

“The number rapidly escalated in the past 20 months as caseloads increased and other changes were made, and 5,000 of the 6,000 cases happened in that time,” he said.

AW: Suchorita Dutta Choudhury