State - Pizza delivery lists may help track scofflaws

It's dinnertime, and you're hungry and tired, so you pick up the phone and order your favorite pizza. But you might have just landed yourself a lot more than pepperoni and cheese.

If you owe fines or fees to the courts, that phone call may have provided the link the state needed to track you down and make you pay.

That's one of the strategies of firms such as a company being hired by the Missouri Office of State Courts Administrator to handle its fine and debt collections.

David Coplen, the state office's budget director, said he found out pizza delivery lists are one of the best sources such companies use to locate people.

"There are literally millions of dollars of uncollected fines, fees and court costs out there," he said.

A sampling in January of just three of Missouri's 114 counties found about $2 million owed to courts by people whose Social Security numbers were known, Coplen said. That finding suggests courts statewide could reap significant revenue once Dallas-based ACS Inc. goes to work later this month pursuing people using phone numbers and addresses.

Starts work Monday

ACS Inc. will go to work statewide beginning Monday, said Jack Morgan, a supervisor for the state's collection center. Right now only traffic and Department of Conservation fines will be collected. ACS will begin recruiting counties that same week for old debt collection. Counties will have the option to participate. Those that do will pay a small fee.

Cape Girardeau County has for the past four years collected traffic and DOC fines through the collection center, Morgan said. Switching to ACS will not reduce the amount the county receives per ticket. Morgan said participating with ACS might increase the amount collected due to a more diligent pursuit of collections.

"I don't think we're going to be supporting it," said associate circuit clerk Susan Wessell. "It's going to be a hassle to get, and why should we pay somebody to collect fines from people who don't have the money to pay them anyway?"

Wessell said some people have owed fines for as long as she has worked there: 29 years.

Neither Wessell nor anyone else could provide a total amount of past due fines and fees owed the county.

Presiding Commissioner Gerald Jones was out of town and unavailable for comment. Associated Commissioner Larry Bock said he would need more information about the process and how much it would cost the county before he could comment.

Databases compiled by private companies and government agencies are a key tool for firms such as ACS, Coplen said, and "one of the databases they find to be most helpful are pizza delivery databases."

"When you call to order a pizza, you usually give them your correct name, your correct address and your correct phone number," he said.

Just which pizza companies' databases might be mined is unknown. Wessell of the circuit clerk's office said she sees problems using that kind of database. Many people have the same name. To be sure to get the right summons to the right person, she would need a birth date and Social Security number -- not just a preference for thin crust or deep dish.

A representative of Domino's Pizza said the company does not sell its customer information. Other national pizza chains did not respond to messages seeking comment.

Michael Daniels, an ACS division vice president, declined to reveal which companies' databases ACS uses.

Pizzas, magazines

Daniels said sifting through private databases, from pizza deliveries to magazine subscriptions, is just one piece of the work the company does to help states collect more money and make the process more efficient.

The company's clients typically see their collections rise anywhere from 33 percent to 100 percent in the first year of a contract, Daniels said.

Some details of Missouri's contract with ACS are still being worked out, Coplen said. The company makes money on court fees by adding a surcharge to the amount a person owes. For every $1 of a court fee it collects, ACS may charge -- and keep -- a maximum surcharge of 20 percent.

For handling the fine collection center, which processes traffic tickets and the like that people pay without going to court, the company is paid per ticket, but the cost is tied to the amount it finds in the debt collection portion.

Coplen said having ACS pursue those who owe court fees and fines will not only bring money into the state but will teach people that when they are fined they must pay up, Coplen said.

Some privacy advocates say the public should be aware of how databases such as pizza delivery lists may be used.

Chris Hoofnagle, of the Electronic Privacy Information Center in Washington, D.C., said the use of such seemingly innocuous information is common.

"Even if you are very careful in protecting your personal information, you give it to any business, they can turn around and sell it," Hoofnagel said.

"The first time your baby sitter orders pizza, that pizza delivery company has your phone number, address and name, and they sell it," he added. "They don't have to tell you about it, either."

Staff writer Linda Redeffer contributed to this report.