Arpaio targets those who owe child support

Jeffrey Javier -
Dec. 12, 2009 05:37 PM
The Arizona Republic .

The Maricopa County Sheriff's Office took to the streets Saturday to arrest parents wanted for not paying child support.

About 50 teams of deputies and volunteer posse members participated in Operation: A Cellblock for Christmas.

Arpaio said that parents with back child-support payments ranging from $1,000 to $175,000 would be arrested if his teams found them at home or at work.

According to the Sheriff's Office, there are currently 1,287 outstanding child-support warrants in Maricopa County.

Though he wants to arrest all parents with outstanding warrants, he said it will be difficult to find all of them because they may change their address or leave the state.

"We're going to do the best we can, but we aren't going to catch all of them," he said.

At the same time, the Sheriff's Office held a toy drive for the children of parents that have been arrested.

The Sheriff's Enforcement Support Building, 3325 W. Durango Road, will be accepting toys until the close of business on Friday.

"We have to remember the kids on Christmas, so we are issuing toys to families that don't have much money because of a deadbeat parent," he said.

http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/ ... r1213.html