This past May, Genesee, Macomb, Oakland, and Wayne counties combined forces in a sweep of 10 northern Michigan counties – Emmet, Mackinac, Otsego, Cheboygan, Presque Isle, Crawford, Charlevoix, Menominee, Ogemaw, and Wexford – collecting a total of $119,398 in current and past-due child support for the four counties. In this sweep, Genesee partnered with the four-county sweep group and traveled north in order to contact obligors living in the northern counties.
Sweeps are enforcement mechanisms used to resolve bench warrants for child support. In some instances, an obligor is incarcerated before the team’s arrival, typically for less than 24 hours. If an obligor is unable to post bond, the team from the visiting counties works with the obligor to secure a payment less than the bond amount. Occasionally, an obligor can pay the bond amount or more once the obligor is able to contact family or make arrangements to secure funds through cash or credit card payments. In other instances, an obligor is picked up by the visiting team and placed into custody where payments are then facilitated and arranged.
Before implementing sweeps, obligors with bench warrants would be arrested in other counties, and the obligor’s county would have to pick them up each time an individual was arrested as a result of a bench warrant. This often required multiple trips throughout the year and a considerable amount of resources. Traditionally, counties have limited their pick-up range to 100 miles, but this range is not mandated and is ultimately decided by the availability of resources. For example, Lapeer and Oakland counties have a statewide pick-up range, while Macomb is limited to 100 miles, and Shiawassee will not pick up obligors from Genesee (its neighboring county).
In 2011, John (Jack) Battles, the Friend of the Court in Genesee County, thought it would be more efficient to plan a single trip to the northern counties in order to collect past-due support. First, Special Projects Unit Supervisor, Alan Alguire, reviewed cases to decide which obligors would be contacted. When scheduling sweeps, the team would look for a return on the investment compared to resources involved and child support collected. The number of obligors that could potentially be contacted is a heavily-weighted factor in determining when and where sweeps would be appropriate. Obligors who live north of US-10 who were not employed or receiving SSI benefits were targeted. The team concluded that it would notify the northern counties of its impending trip and ask them if they would be willing to help. This resulted in a multijurisdictional enforcement effort by FOC staff, judges, and sheriffs. Alan emailed a list of the obligors to sheriffs ahead of time so they could locate the obligors and pick them up. There were two goals met in this sweep: past-due money was collected and obligors avoided lengthy arrests.
Four people went on the 2011 sweep, collecting over $50,000 from 44 individuals for Genesee County. Sheriffs from the northern counties helped in collection efforts by picking up obligors before the sweep and placing them in jail, awaiting Genesee’s arrival. Of the 44 individuals contacted, 10 were brought back to Genesee for arraignment; two of those individuals were released later that night after making payments. The team also transported obligors from Genesee to Antrim, Crawford, Grand Traverse, and Otsego counties.
Because the sweep was such a success, the team wanted to do it again, but bigger. After a few years of organizing and gathering resources, it was time. One Friday morning in May, 2015, the original four staff again went north accompanied by six other individuals, a mix of deputies and caseworkers. Tom Blohm, the Director of the Macomb FOC, also made the trek. Not only was the team able to resolve bench warrants, but the accompanying caseworkers were able to provide case management services including: requests for modification, waivers, and payment plans. An exhausted but proud team returned the following Sunday evening. Overall, the northern sweep resulted in a collection of $119,398 from 100 obligors, with some obligors given up to two weeks to make payments. The highest collection for a single obligor was $10,000, with three additional cases that collected $4,000 or more. Additionally, 13 individuals were transported back to southeast Michigan.
Two other factors made the success of this year’s northern sweep possible: cooperation between the counties, and excellent in-house locate services, which included extensive use of MiCSES and social media.
To assist the northern counties, Genesee offered to either collect payments from the northern obligors located in Genesee or to drop the obligors off in their respective counties on the way. In fact, Macomb was able to collect $24,745 on behalf of the northern counties. When the team was not able to make contact with an obligor in person, it left a business card, prompting the obligor to contact the office to arrange payments in order to clear the bench warrant.
In comparison, the success rate seems comparable with the previous year’s sweep. This year, Jack and his team traveled to the obligor’s last known address and spoke with the residents there directly, instead of having the obligors picked up ahead of time. While Genesee’s in-house locate service was very helpful in making sure contact information for the obligors was up-to-date, having to locate the obligors individually made the project more time-intensive. For future sweeps, Genesee hopes to establish a better means of communication. By channeling all pick-up and LEIN information through a single agency (instead of juggling multiple contacts), logistical issues like the pick-up schedule will smooth out.
Genesee has conducted several sweeps throughout the course of a year. Since the northern sweep, Genesee has conducted several other sweeps in other geographic areas. A sweep was conducted recently on the west side of the state, and the team is hoping to travel to Macomb and Oakland counties before the end of the November.
