Arizona is naming and shaming "deadbeat" dads -- and moms -- on Twitter, a day after Gov. Doug Ducey called out men who don't pay child support.
"If you don't want your embarrassing, unlawful and irresponsible behavior going viral," Ducey warned, "man up, and pay up."
The first deadbeat tweet by the state Department of Economic Security after Ducey's speech was Aaron Ace Anderson, who owes more than $170,000 in child support, including 10 percent annual interest. His last payment, according to DES, was 10 years ago. All tweets will use the hashtag "deadbeat."
"I like this idea of putting these people out there and making it publicly known that they owe and they owe a lot," said Karl Scholes, a family law attorney at David Miles McGuire Gardner in Tempe. "It's something, and there are just too many cases where there's no hope at all."
But while Ducey might be making a safe political move -- "The only person who's going to hate you is the person who's being publicly shamed," Scholes said, adding there might not be much of an impact.
"I'm a little bit skeptical as to the effectiveness of it," Scholes said.
One problem: Anderson's arrest warrant was issued in Maricopa County 14 years ago, but he now lives in New York, according to DES.
"He's pretty safe in New York," Scholes said. "I've never had an experience where somebody will enforce an arrest warrant in a different state."
The rogues gallery of deadbeat fathers and mothers who live in Arizona might not have much to worry about, either. Scholes says arresting deadbeats isn't a high priority for police.
"If law enforcement was able to follow up on child support arrest warrants as a higher priority, that would be more effective than this public shaming idea," he said.
Ducey's idea isn't exactly new. Sheriff Joe Arpaio's been naming and rounding up deadbeat dads and moms during holidays for the last 20 years.
