In his State of the State speech in January, ARizona Gov. Doug Ducey said he would hold deadbeat parents accountable on social media. Nearly six months later, the governor’s plan to call out and catch child support evaders seems to be working.
When Gov. Ducey announced the Department of Economic Security (DES) would start posting the photos of deadbeat parents along with the hashtag “deadbeat” on its Twitter and Facebook, it made national news. Today, the initiative is still going strong, and the governor's office says it's doing what Ducey intended.
"A total of 11 parents have been located. We’ve posted 66 parents online thus far, and we’ll continue to do that. Those include seven women and 59 men," said Tasya Peterson with DES. She said more than $38,000 in past due child support has been collected so far.
A deadbeat parent must meet certain criteria before their image and accompanying hashtag are posted to DES’s social media sites.