DCAC provides a child-sensitive environment for our unique collaborative effort with other public and private agencies in Dallas County charged with investigating child abuse cases, treating abused children and their non-offending care givers, and bringing their offenders to justice.

The Child Advocate Program incorporates our forensic interview staff and victim assistance coordinator to ensure a cooperative multidisciplinary team (MDT) approach to the investigation of child abuse cases in Dallas County for children 14 years of age and younger. DCAC provides objective, child-sensitive and defendable interviews of children alleged to be the victims of abuse, facilitates an MDT approach to sudden unexpected child deaths, and serves child witnesses to violent crime.

DCAC has served more than 29,000 children and families since the agency’s inception in 1991.

Therapy is provided for child abuse victims and non-offending care givers. Children benefit from individual and group counseling designed to help them cope with their trauma.

In addition to the Crimes Against Children Conference, our Education Program provides Recognizing and Reporting Child Abuse and other instruction for parents, school personnel, social service agencies,  and medical students.

Dallas Police Department is one of the original partner agencies supporting the work of the Dallas Children’s Advocacy Center (DCAC). Since the Center was established in 1991, the Department’s Child Abuse Squad has been housed there, helping ensure a close, cooperative working relationship among detectives, Center staff, medical experts, and Child Protective Services (CPS) professionals. The Child Abuse Squad has a variety of responsibilities including investigation of complaints of physical and sexual abuse that occur within the family and cases of fatal child abuse and neglect. The Squad also investigates incidents of suspected abuse and neglect referred to police by CPS. Dallas Child Abuse detectives work very closely with their colleagues from CPS and conduct joint inquiries in those cases where both agencies have an investigative responsibility.

The Child Exploitation Squad is responsible for investigating offenses of non-familial child sexual abuse and exploitation, juvenile prostitution, non-Internet child pornography, and child abductions. Although not physically located at the DCAC, Child Exploitation Squad detectives use Center facilities on a routine basis for conducting interviews of their child victims. Detectives also refer child victims to the DCAC for therapy.

The Sex Offender Compliance Squad is responsible for enforcing Texas sex offender registration laws. This squad comprises two teams—the Registration Team and the Sex Offender Apprehension Program (SOAP) Team. In 1998, the SOAP Team received the Weber Seavey Award from the International Association of Chiefs of Police as one of the most innovative law enforcement programs in the country.

The Internet Crimes Against Children (ICAC) Task Force is responsible for investigating cases of web-facilitated child pornography and cases of child sexual exploitation or abuse that result from contact over the Internet or other computer services. The Dallas ICAC is one of sixty-one special Task Forces in operation across the United States supported by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.

In 2003, the Dallas Police Department became part of the FBI National Innocence Lost Task Force to combat domestic trafficking of children. As a result of this task force involvement, in November 2004, the High Risk Victims and Trafficking Team (HRVT) was formed within the Child Exploitation Squad to more effectively deal with child victims of sex trafficking. Detectives assigned to the HRVT team specialize in investigations involving the sexual abuse and exploitation of high-risk/multiple runaways, child victims of sex trafficking, and repeat victims of sexual abuse. The Dallas HRVT team has developed an investigation and intervention protocol and an interview model specific to child victims of sex trafficking. The Dallas Police Department's HRVT team has become a national model for identifying and locating child victims of sex trafficking, diverting them from future victimization or delinquent conduct, and aggressively pursuing their exploiters.

All of the units of the Dallas Police Department described above enjoy close working relationships with the Dallas office of the FBI. A Crimes Against Children Task Force was formed in 1995 which combines the resources and expertise of both agencies. This Task Force works cooperatively on all sexual exploitation cases which may involve federal violations such as computer child pornography, juvenile prostitution, and child abductions. The Dallas detectives assigned to this Task Force have been deputized as both U.S. Marshals and Special Investigators of the Texas Attorney General’s Office to assist them in the filing of criminal charges in exploitation cases.