NYPD Detective, Jane Barker Child Advocacy Center

Detective DeMaria is one of the most successful investigators of child abuse in New York City. A father of four from Staten Island, he's a natural with kids, which helps him gain the trust of a frightened child who has been abused. What makes his work exceptional is that he's equally adept at gaining the offender's trust and securing a confession thereby saving thousands of children from further torment.

Robin Hood honored Detective DeMaria for his extraordinary work at the Jane Barker Child Advocacy Center (JBCAC) which handled 2,000 child abuse cases in 2000. The JBCAC is an ambitious multidisciplinary initiative of Safe Horizon which coordinates the efforts of police, prosecutors, child protection agencies, health care providers, and social workers under one roof to aid the victims of, and reduce the incidence of, child abuse. Robin Hood's support enabled the JBCAC to open on evenings and weekends, times that are busy for intakes and productive for detective work, and to launch sites in Queens and Staten Island as well.