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Former Policeman Now DCF's 'Top Cop'

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By SHERRI ACKERMAN, The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 20, 2007

TAMPA - Ed Hardy Sr., a 30-year law enforcement veteran from Broward County, will serve as the Department of Children & Families' first director of criminal justice services.

Hardy, who founded and headed the Florida Association of Schools Police Chiefs and Administrators, said he will focus on improving communications between DCF and law enforcement agencies and let police, sheriff's offices and other agencies know what DCF can do for them.

"We'll share what we do," he said Monday, after word of the appointment.

The appointment is the result of a statewide task force convened this summer after the discovery of a toddler missing from Florida's care for nine months. Courtney Clark disappeared in October 2006, just two months shy of her second birthday, after her mother convinced a state-approved caregiver her case was closed.

A Pinellas County caseworker in charge of Courtney's welfare told investigators she tried to report the girl missing three months later, but the Lake County Sheriff's Office refused to take the report over the telephone.

A state investigation said Lake County didn't refuse, but took another month to get the information into a database that would alert national missing persons authorities.

DCF Secretary Bob Butterworth created the new director position to ensure mistakes, such as that one, no longer occur.

"The Clark case exposed weaknesses on our end that revealed the need for a 'top cop,'" Butterworth said in a prepared release.

Hardy most recently served as a major with the Florida Department of Financial Services, in the insurance fraud division. He spent eight years as Broward County school board's chief of police and worked as an investigator in the state attorney's office as well as a police officer.

Hardy has known Butterworth, a longtime Florida attorney general and former Broward County sheriff, since the mid-1970s.

Reporter Sherri Ackerman can be reached at (813) 259-7144 or sackerman@tampatrib.com.

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