Friend of the Court Warrants Unit

Oakland County Sheriff's Office, Investigative and Forensic Services Division

The Oakland County Sheriff's Office Friend of the Court Warrants Unit investigates, apprehends and transports individuals wanted for violation of court orders relating to child support, alimony and visitation. 

At full strength, the unit consists of six investigators supervised by one sergeant. They are responsible for enforcement of the 5400+ warrants issued every year and travel throughout the state picking up and transporting individuals arrested by other law enforcement agencies on Oakland County Friend of the Court warrants.  There are also three clerks (employed by Friend of the Court) responsible for entering and confirming warrants. 

Several projects have been implemented in the F.O.C. Enforcement Unit operation to promote effectiveness.  The most successful change implemented was the large scale use of "Wanted Posters" being sent to subjects with recently issued warrants.  The project resulted in hundreds of individuals turning themselves in or making payments.  With the Unit's large caseload it has become an effective means of dealing with subjects who live out-of-state or might be at any one of several addesses (often hundreds of miles apart).

The other success has been working open warrants in distant areas when investigators are sent to pick up prisoners.  Files of open warrants are maintained sorted by geographic area.  Whenever a prisoner pick-up to a distant county takes place, the two investigators take time to attempt to locate subjects along the route or near the destination.  This has resulted in several arrests and an excellent use of travel time and expense.

The most significant development of 2010 was assigning an experienced investigator to the task of working on “cold cases,” typically a warrant status case over five years old.  Since initiated in June, a total of 14 “wanted”’ subjects have been determined to be deceased, 92 Oakland County FOC cases have been closed, and an excess of four million dollars in arrearages collectible by the Oakland County Friend of the Court have been cancelled.