Columbus, OH – The Franklin County Commissioners teamed up with the Franklin County Sheriff and the Franklin County Prosecutor to participate in yesterday's statewide round-up for child support offenders. As of 6:00 p.m. yesterday evening, 30 individuals had “checked in” to the Franklin County Jail, booked on violating their child support orders.

Deputies from the Sheriff's Child Support Enforcement Unit hit the streets early yesterday morning augmented by 22 additional staff to begin working some 140 arrest warrants. The two deputies assigned to this unit are under contract to the Child Support Enforcement Agency and work year-round to apprehend child support offenders on both civil and criminal warrants.

Commenting on the round-up, Commissioner Arlene Shoemaker, president of the Board of Commissioners, had this to say: “Yesterday we joined 38 other Ohio counties for the annual statewide round-up of child support offenders. We want every offender to understand that they will be pursued and prosecuted if they do not abide by the law and court orders to provide for their children.”

Commissioner Dewey Stokes added, “We've had our share of sweeps over the last eleven years and netted many arrests and successful prosecutions. Last year we've stepped up our countywide sweeps to two evolutions per year. Our last independently held sweep took place in late June and culminated in 29 apprehensions.”

“The importance of these sweeps,” remarked Commissioner Mary Jo Kilroy, “is in the awareness they bring to the local community of the child support issue which is, unfortunately, still with us. What we are attempting to convey here, particularly to those who are willfully not living up to their court ordered mandate to pay support, is our willingness to go after those who refuse to take proper care of their children.”

Last year, 297 individuals were arrested on child support warrants handed down by our Franklin County Courts.

The two deputies assigned to the Sheriff's Child Support Enforcement Unit continue to pursue these cases on a daily basis. They follow up on felony non-support warrants obtained before Franklin County Grand Juries and civil warrants obtained by CSEA attorneys in Franklin County's Domestic and Juvenile Courts.

Franklin County continues to provide the full range of administrative and judicial remedies for those cases that fail to comply with existing court orders for support.

CSEA collections this year are expected to exceed 195 million dollars.