“Don’t Be a Deadbeat” operation will serve 600 warrants
Sheriff Joe Arpaio says that with Labor Day around the corner, “a day that celebrates the social and economic contributions made by American workers,” his deputies will be working to find moms and dads who are refusing to contribute to the economic condition of their own children. Operation “Don’t Be a Deadbeat” kicks off on Saturday, August 25, 2012.
Sheriff Arpaio will kick off his annual “Don’t Be a Deadbeat” warrant roundup this weekend with nearly 100 volunteer posse and deputies seeking out deadbeat parents, as well as domestic violence and sex offenders. Armed with nearly 600 warrants, several arrests are anticipated.
“These people who commit crimes against children or who fail to obey court orders and pay their child support or physically abuse their spouses deserve to be behind bars.” Sheriff Arpaio says. “Not living up to parental responsibilities has a far reaching negative impact on society. This is one of my favorite operations undertaken by my office because it helps so many families.”
While there are plenty of warrants to be served, finding these deadbeats is often difficult, Arpaio says.
“These people do everything they can to avoid paying the money they owe to their families and to elude capture. They leave the state or constantly change residences to make finding them difficult, if not impossible,” Arpaio says.
Rounding up deadbeat parents is an ongoing effort for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office. In 2011, the Sheriff’s Office served nearly 189 Child support warrants facilitating the return of over $1.2 million in back money owed to families. And so far this year the Sheriff’s Office has served 92 Child support warrants with a return of $614,200.00 in back child support payments to families.
For Arpaio, these annual large scale roundups are a way to emphasize the importance and scope of the problem and they have been routinely successful in both arrest numbers and money returned to families.
Sheriff Arpaio started the annual roundups in 2002. The operations have traditionally been done in conjunction with Mother’s Day and over the past 10 years have netted 452 arrests for failure to pay child support and returned a total of $3 million owed to Maricopa County families during the roundups. Overall, since 2002, the Sheriff’s child support warrant team coupled with these annual roundups has netted nearly 1700 deadbeat parent arrests returning over $14 million to county families.
“Operation Don’t Be a Deadbeat” will start in the very early morning hours of August 25th to insure the likelihood of finding these deadbeats at home. The operation will continue throughout the day.
Sheriff Arpaio will setup his Command Post at the Park Central Mall parking lot on Central Avenue, north of Thomas Road. All arrests will be brought there for processing and then transported from there to the jail for booking.