Comptroller: Sheriffs Still Slow On Draw Getting Child Support

The City Sheriff's Office responsible for enforcing court-ordered child-support payments is still too slow in executing judgements, according to a follow-up audit issued by the City Comptroller's Office.

WILLIAM THOMPSON: Sheriffs not thorough enough.

Several Flaws

"My previous audit found a number of weaknesses in how the Sheriff's Office served summonses and subpoenas for child support," City Comptroller William C. Thompson said in a statement, referring to his office's 2003 report. "While the Sheriff's Office has considerably improved its timeliness, it still has further improvements to make. Families rely on child support payments to be able to care for their children. Any delays in getting that support can have a profoundly negative impact on families. The Sheriff's Office should continue to improve its enforcement services so that children are not shortchanged."

Sheriffs work within the Department of Finance and are responsible for enforcing Family Court judgments. The Family Court Warrants Unit, in conjunction with the Office of Child Support Enforcement of the Human Resources Administration, issues summonses and subpoenas and executes arrest warrants for non-custodial parents who fail to pay child support.

Mr. Thompson's earlier audit concluded that the Sheriff's Office did not adequately check those parents' addresses, did not thoroughly try to make contact with them in a timely manner and found court documents were served to persons other than the parent, without making additional attempts to find them. The initial report recommended several changes that last week's audit found had been implemented to some degree, including use of the Child Support Management System to obtain accurate addresses and using computer databases, to further aid in locating the parents.

Outstanding Issues

The new report commended the Sheriffs for considerably improving their timeliness, but noted that other issues had not been adequately addressed. The report concluded the Sheriff's Office should revisit the Comptroller's earlier recommendations, including expanded use of computer databases, further attempts to locate the parents at various times of the day or night, and clarifying whether they must be personally served.

Finance Department spokesman Owen Stone responded, "The Sheriff's Division is working to continuously improve its operations to achieve results. We're pleased with the audit results and will continue to do our best to locate parents so that they can fulfill their obligations to their children."