To some children, a detective sergeant brings tears (5)
I believe the answer is:
rends
'tears' is the definition.
(rending is a kind of tearing)
'to some children a detective sergeant' is the wordplay.
'to some children' becomes 'ren' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'a detective sergeant' becomes 'DS' (abbreviation for detective sergeant).
'ren'+'ds'='RENDS'
'brings' is the link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for rends that I've seen before include "Tears asunder" , "Tears apart" .)