By Richard Dye
The thought of a bounty hunter may bring characters like Boba Fett from Star Wars or A&E”s Dog the Bounty Hunter to mind.
While many may have seen the large, rough-around-the-edges “Dog” bust hardened criminals who jumped bail, few know exactly what bail is or even what gives a bounty hunter power to arrest.
The process begins once an alleged criminal is arrested and booked into jail.
The judge usually sets bail via closed circuit T.V. from the jail to the courthouse, said Andy Howell, a Utah County public defender and BYU law graduate.
The judge then considers the nature of the charge, the defendant”s criminal history and his ties to the community. He uses these factors to estimate the likelihood that the defendant will show up in court if let out on bail and whether he would be a danger to the community if released.
Bail isn”t always allowed. For a capital felony, such as aggravated murder, Howell said the judge doesn”t have to allow bail.
Once bail has been posted the alleged criminal is released on the condition of returning for his or her upcoming court date. If they fail to appear to their court date, a warrant is issued for their arrest.
“A lot of people miss court but most don”t run,” Howell said. “If you are really trying to run you have to give up your own life.”
When bail is set higher than defendants can pay, they often turn to bail bondsmen. For a fee, usually 10 percent of the bail amount, a bondsman will write a bond to the court for the entire bail amount. If the defendant doesn”t have sufficient collateral to cover that amount, a friend or family member often co-signs in their behalf. If the defendant skips bail, the bail bondsman has a set amount of time to return him or her to custody before the agency owes the court the full bail amount.
Thomas Hatrick, a bail bondsman and owner of American Protection, a bounty hunting/bail enforcement agency, has had many experiences issuing bail and tracking down those that have “bailed out.”
“When we post bail for somebody we give the court a guarantee that they”ll go to court,” Hatrick said. “When on bail [we are] kind of like [their] babysitters.”
Bail bond agencies often hire either bail enforcers or bounty hunters to track down those who jump bail. A bounty hunter is different from a bail enforcer in that he or she will hunt down anyone with a reward on their head, not just bail-jumpers.
Duane “Dog” Chapman”s Web site states that while there are few professional bounty hunters nationwide, there are some 8,000 bail enforcement agents who account for a combined 30,000 to 40,000 arrests per year.
Hatrick is one bail bondsman whose agency does the dirty work itself, instead of using a separate bail enforcement agency.
“I go track them down and re-arrest them and put them in jail,” he said.
He has had people skip bail on him two or three times and has always recovered the money, he said. Hatrick not only makes money by issuing bail, but by tracking down those who have skipped bail from other bondsman.
“If I have to hunt them down and re-arrest them then we charge another 10 percent,” he said.
That 10 percent ultimately comes from the person who skipped bail, so they end up paying for someone to track them down, he said.
Hatrick hunts down people from Utah and neighboring states, between 15-20 people per month, he said.
In order to find them he uses a myriad of methods, researching their interests, speaking with family and friends and finding informants on the street. Ironically, the co-signer on the bail bond is sometimes used to hunt down the fugitive. They typically help, Hatrick said, because they don”t want to lose their money even if they are the friends of the fugitive.
“We play games, they come to us not knowing who we are,” he said. “I catch them by whatever means it takes.”
Bail enforcers carry concealed weapons and receive their arresting power from the bail bond company”s bond itself.
The bail enforcers in Hatrick”s small agency travel all over the United States, charging airfare, rental car and other expenses to the bail bond companies that contract them out. Hatrick once arrested a fugitive in South Carolina and had to drive him back to Boise, Idaho.
The hard work and constant traveling doesn”t seem to bother him.
“I love doing it, it”s a lot of fun,” he said.
In order to become a bail enforcement agent, Hatrick said, students need to take a 16-hour bail enforcement college course and 16-hour gun-training course. These courses teach what an enforcer legally can and cannot do as well as how to make an arrest.
In Utah the Bureau of Criminal Identification licenses bail enforcement agents. These agents must meet certain requirements besides required course work. More information can be found at http://bci.utah.gov.
