Bounty Hunters?


Canis-Lupus

New member
I don't know Jack about the trade that goes back to days when lawless towns put up 'Wanted' posters of BG's and armed posses went after them on horses for the reward. I watched a 2005 flick called Domino about this young, kick-ass Brit-born gal who gets into the trade, supposed to be a spin on the real-life Domino Harvey, but hyped-up for Hollywood of course. Lots of shooting and tearing places to bits going after BG's.
Got a lot of questions like do these folks have U.S.-wide rules-of-engagement or does it shift per region? Can they enter places like airports where even CCW packing citizens dare not run around like a bad day in Beirut! I can't see armed hombres :Image35: in say DC (no-guns) using or even carrying firearms without breaking a load of laws, or do they get a free reign anywhere? Some old hole in an ancient law that gives them the rights of cops, Federal Marshalls, FBI, and PMC's all rolled into one? Defending yourself with a gun is one thing, lock 'n loading then tracking a $1mil mark down who prolly won't come in without a fight is way left of protect & serve. Has anyone a tale to tell about why they seem to be able to use a lot of ballistic force in the Northern Seattle area where the WA State RCW's don't even mention 'contracted bounty hunters' or if they do I missed it. Uniforms or plain clothes, badges/I.D.'s, permits, that extend over lines most cops can't even cross? I don't mess with the marked types nor their hunters, but I sure would like to know if these folks can turn my hood into Swiss cheese if some mark makes his/her way thru my part of town as I am busy getting out of the way, 4-get even trying to figure out who is legal or even get involved! :boom06:
Please no acerbic 1-liners, don't need 'em. If you have some good info or a link on the topic I'd love to read about it, because the news (below) is 5 days old & very real. It did happen in WA and that has me very curious having lived here close to 10 years total, never giving it much thought.

Canis-Lupus :57:

Man killed by bounty hunters identified
The Associated Press
LAKEWOOD, Pierce County — A man who was shot to death by bounty hunters in Lakewood has been identified as 34-year-old Roberto Roque.
Bail bond agents say they shot Roque in self-defense Thursday after he backed his car into one of the agent's two cars, then started going forward. Investigators say two guns were found in Roque's car.
He was facing charges in three criminal cases, including drug and weapons offenses. More recently he was accused in recent weeks of stealing money from Liberty Bail Bonds Inc., which hired the agents.
The two bounty hunters who shot at him say they fired in self-defense. Company agents have declined to comment. A police investigation into the shooting is continuing.
Copyright © 2008 The Seattle Times Company
 

Bail Enforcement Agents (aka "Bounty Hunters") are often regulated by state law. Some states require licensing, others don't. In most cases, you need some type of licensing to be "armed". Here in Hawaii, there is no state laws specific to bail enforcement, and working in the industry, bail enforcement agents are NOT authorized to be "armed". I've done a few jobs here in Hawaii. All I had to protect me was my body armor (many bail jumpers are armed), pepper spray, and my instincts.

The majority of the bail enforcemnet work I've done was in other states under the supervision of licensed bail enforcement agents or private investigators. In these states I met the various requirements and was armed with a handgun, taser or both. I worked over 100 cases and drew my firearm once, though I used a taser on many more occasions.

Hope I've answered your questions.



gf
 
Hey GF, doesn't Dog the Bounty Hunter do work in HI? I thought I saw a couple episodes with him there.....Watching that show, I don't think he's ever carried anything more lethal than a taser, but I don't know. Maybe his past keeps him from being able to carry.
 
A lot depends on the state

You have to abide by the laws of the state or you are a vigilante and not a bounty hunter.:mp070803115237MiKe-
 
I use to be one...

Back in my younger days where I had more hair on top of my scalp and less of a Buddha blessing I was in the business back in the early to mid 90's. It's also one of the good things that came out of my marriage and getting back into IT full time was me getting out of the business. I didn't need the headache, long hours, etc. This was before it was heavily regulated in Nevada which started in 1997. In many States, it is as tightly regulated as private investigators, private security or recovery industry. CT, NV and UT are some of the more tightly regulated States for bail enforcement agents.

Utah require the same amount of apprenticeship hours now (2000 hours) before you can be an independent contractor. An abridged form of an associates degree in criminal justice or POST is required to get a bail enforcement agent's license in CT and NV. NV also requires CPR and first aid training to be a bail enforcement agent along with getting a psychiatric exam; an abridged form of POST certification. Besides, I'm happy being a part time mobile firearm/CCW instructor. If I want to put the skills to use on finding people when I was in the bail enforcement industry, I'd just go into the process server industry while being a firearm instructor when I retire from my 40 hour a week regular W-2 job and have my retirement benes fully vested. A little bit less of a headache and you're dealing with civil, not criminal cases.

There are no special laws pertaining to bail enforcement agents except for licensing and regulation in many States. It's the bad apples that cause the regulation. They are a private citizen that is collecting on a breech of contract or bail agreement. Bail enforcement agents have no special immunity under the law, no special CCWs rights in most cases, no immunity from civil liability. They are not LEOs. This shooting will be treated like any other homicide investigation.

The good bail enforcement agents will work with law enforcement to apprehend their subject. One for liability reasons and two to make sure no one gets hurt. It's now also a statutory requirement in NV that a bail enforcement agent notify local law enforcement prior to entering a private residence to apprehend their subject.

Good bail enforcement agents are part of the solution, not a problem. I can't comment on the shooting itself as I don't know all of the details other than what the media has leaked out.
 
Hey GF, doesn't Dog the Bounty Hunter do work in HI? I thought I saw a couple episodes with him there.....Watching that show, I don't think he's ever carried anything more lethal than a taser, but I don't know. Maybe his past keeps him from being able to carry.


dog the bounty hunter does work here in Hawaii (or so he claims). I personally think the "reality" show is bogus. Most folks in the industry tell me that they have maybe 3 or 4 bail jumpers every year. If they have any more than that, then their insurance carriers would drop them or hike rates so high that doing business would be very difficult.

As for what dog carries, I saw an episode where he was carrying OC pepper spray. Tasers and "Mace" are illegal here in Hawaii. He once gave an interview where he held up an OC cannister and stated "I carry Mace". Little did he realize that if his statement was true, he just admitted a crime on television. :)

The guy isn't very tall. I'm 5'7" and he's shorter than me!



gf
 
Mahalo-nui Glock Fan!

I did 7 years in HI, (82-89) the 25th I.D. (L) did not make it much of a touristy vacation; 4 years with the Division, toughest job I ever did, but I was young, super-fit and being called: 'Doc' was an honor U had to earn from the grunts, not given lightly as many of my ex-hospital duty medics learned the hard way, then 2 yrs as NCOIC of Schofield Bks. E.R. busy times, and finally 1 yr as NCOIC Ambulance Section TAMC (Pink Palace) frigging nutso wild 12-hour shifts. The infantry let me travel all over the Pacific, but I reckon I prolly spent 1/3 of that time up on PTA, Big Island, and R & R 'in the rear with the gear' meant humping thru the Kahukus for 3 weeks at a pop, BF red centipedes 12-18" long and a gazillion skeeters. Only island I never hit was (off limits to all but proven 95% native blood Hawaiians, & frozen in a simpler time) Nihau, not even a real part of the USA in a strange kinda way, own laws & everything, flew over it in a Heuy and a month later went down hard on Lanai in a Chinook when the tail rotor cut-out at 1K feet, my shortest visit to any of the smaller islands, MEDEVAC-ed back to the 'Pink-Palace' after that with a broken spine and minus 3 teeth! Maui was cool and Kauai was paradise! I lived in upper Makakilo, bought a $120K home in 82 and sold it in 89 for double that! What a view, spent safe beach time down @ NAS Barbers Pt, now closed I hear, shame, great clean beach with only a few sharks and a few hostile locals! After a while I started hanging with the less radical locals long enough for most to call me a kamaaina, not a haulie anymore which beat hanging out with drunken/doping soldiers, so I kinda embraced a LOT of the good I found in the decent folks who made me part of their extended Hawaiian families. The North Shore was still then mostly locals and gone native hippies, and I did not want to leave when my time was up. Gone native big time! You must have some hairy stories to tell from fugitive retieval days there. Even when I called that place home, there was LOT of crime from pot fields as big as small cities on Government land where local cops couldn't go, but we had to clear it, (Operations 'Green Sweep 82-85) taking live fire from those who lived there in cammo-ed hooches, guarded their crops and were some mostly ex 'Nam era Vets making fortunes, to muggings and even the Yakusa had a hold on most of the docks and even some of the cops! My last year @ TAMC we covered the crater, (Red Hill) and that was domestic violence everything from GSW's to idiots bringing home live grenades and come 4th July rolling them down the roads just 4 kicks! The very worst I had to deal with was when City & County went to overflow or down, we 'inherited' Pearl City as a 911 response area not normally ours, that's where most of the time we would not even go near a local's hooch unless the cops were there 1st, but the few times we beat the cops there, F-Me but I saw some grizzly stuff and some locals I would not want to mess with (but had to anyway) as some 400lb human-tank came running at us weilding a BF samurai sword or nun-chucks sreaming: "F-ing haulie mo-fo's, we gonna beef U brah now but good!" I left a lot of my soul there and I think it's great you live there even if the cost of living would make most 49 other states wince in pain! :embarrest: U R right about one thing, I saw very few privately owned weapons there, but in places like Waipahu, Ewa Beach or Waianae many of the locals packed snub-nosed .38's to shotguns and gun-play was a normal way of life 'n death down there. Or even downtown Honolulu when RIMPAC sailed into town ever year and hookers were flying in from every part of the Pacific rim for big time hit$ on thousands of rich drunk sailors and marines from many nations! More 'beef' than 100K Big-Mac's :burglar: Filled up Tripler ER fast and kept us hauling 'meat' up that hill like a taxi-cab service.
Aloha,

Canis-Lupus :bier:
 
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Most of the cases I had here in Hawaii were fairly simple. A call to the bail jumper's mother or to their local church was all it took to get them to surrender peacefully. OTOH, I've had a few folks from out of state that were hiding out here in the islands. Gotta admit that they gave me a run for my money. :wink:



gf
 
Hey GF, doesn't Dog the Bounty Hunter do work in HI? I thought I saw a couple episodes with him there.....Watching that show, I don't think he's ever carried anything more lethal than a taser, but I don't know. Maybe his past keeps him from being able to carry.
His past does keep him from carrying. He's a convicted felon that has not had his 2A rights restored.
 
Up until a few years ago, a license was not required to work as a bail agent in NJ. Now, one has to have a minimum of five years as LEO to be a bail agent, in order to qualify for the new license. If a bail agent wishes to be armed, they must apply separately for a carry permit. NJ pretty much only issues carry permits to former LEO's anyway, along with armored truck guards. A carry permit issued to a former LEO requires requalification and use of force class every six months.

Bail agents do not have free reign. They will be held to answer for any crimes they commit during the course of their duties, just like any other civilian. It is in their best interests to stay within the law, as breaking the law could cause them to forfeit their bounty. They also face losing their liability insurance coverage. They are also not allowed to carry in places where civilians may not carry--they are not police officers. So courthouses, federal buildings, and other restricted areas make them vulnerabel to being arrested if they're armed.
 

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