§ 818-1. Legislative intent.

A. 

This Legislature hereby finds and determines that the parental support of children is a fundamental legal, social and moral responsibility because a parent's long-standing failure to fulfill that responsibility may harm his or her children and force the community at large to assume that individual's basic parental obligations.

B. 

This Legislature further finds and determines that many parents do not fulfill this fundamental obligation and do not pay child support, thereby forcing the County Department of Social Services, through its Child Support Enforcement Bureau, to expend County funds to track down these individuals and force payment from them for child support.

C. 

This Legislature also finds and determines that Fairfax County, Virginia, has been immobilizing the vehicles of "deadbeat" noncustodial parents by clamping "boots" on the wheels and also gluing a sticker to the windshield which states: "THIS VEHICLE HAS BEEN SEIZED BY THE FAIRFAX COUNTY SHERIFF FOR UNPAID CHILD SUPPORT"; that Fairfax County has booted 47 vehicles and has collected $351,000 in overdue payments; and that the procedure has been implemented throughout the whole State of Virginia.

D. 

This Legislature also finds that Wayne County, Michigan, and Cape May County, New Jersey, also use this booting process to force payment of overdue payments.

E. 

Therefore, the purpose of this article is to force "deadbeat" parents located within the County of Suffolk to fulfill their moral obligation to pay child support imposed upon them by law by immobilizing their vehicles through the use of clamps fashioned in the form of "boots" on the vehicle wheels and by affixing a sticker to the windshield which states that "THIS VEHICLE HAS BEEN SEIZED BY THE SUFFOLK COUNTY SHERIFF FOR UNPAID CHILD SUPPORT."