Utica, NY (WIBX) - The Oneida County Child Advocacy Center is looking to add two new investigators.

Sheriff Rob Maciol, County Executive, Anthony Picente, and District Attorney Scott McNamara have made the request for two Deputy Sheriff Patrol positions, estimated at slightly more than $40,000 each.

In recent years, the CAC has seen a rise in the number of cases against children, growing from 430 in 2009, to nearly 540 in 2012.

Maciol says the new additions would lessen each investigator's case load and increase effectiveness.

"If you take a step back in time a few years, there was actually somewhere between five, six or seven investigators assigned there," Maciol said. "So, there's less people working there now than there were a few years back. But, the problem with that is since the past few years, the case load at the CAC has risen and it continues to rise."

But, he says it won't happen over night.

"This is a process that is going to take several weeks for us," Maciol said. "If it gets through the Public Safety Committee, then Ways and Means and then the full Board meeting in the middle of January. Even after that, the investigators have to be selected and there has to be some training... so it's several weeks out."

Currently, the CAC is staffed by the Oneida County Sheriff's Office, State Police, and the Utica and Rome Police Departments. Each department has one investigator stationed with the agency, though in the meantime the Utica Police Department has added a second to lighten the work load.

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