Bail system in the USA
→ Main article: Bail system (United States)
The existence of bounty hunters in the United States is closely linked to the bail system there. In the United States, a defendant can pay bail if he does not want to spend time in jail until the trial. To do this, he can borrow the bail from a private bail bond office, which charges a fee. The client usually has to secure the bail additionally with assets such as a property or a car.
If the defendant fails to appear at trial and is not apprehended within a specified period of time thereafter (in California, for example, this period is 180 days or six months), the bail bond office does not recover the bail advanced. Therefore, the bail agent (bail bondsman) endeavors to apprehend the fugitive himself or through a bounty hunter. The rights of bounty hunters in this regard go back to a ruling of the US Supreme Court (Taylor vs. Taintor) in 1873. Another legal basis is the contract concluded between the bail office and the fugitive.
The state merely puts out an alert for the fugitive, often without immediately taking further action. It is estimated that there are about 15,000 bail bonds offices in the US. Each year, about 31,500 people fail to show up for court dates after being released on bail. Bounty hunters claim to return about 90 percent of them to the authorities.
In the four states of Illinois, Kentucky, Oregon, and Wisconsin, commercial bail bonds offices are not even provided for.
Rights and benefits of the bounty hunter
Depending on the laws of the respective state, a bounty hunter in the USA has certain special rights over private individuals. For example, a bounty hunter may pursue a fugitive to and from other states and cannot be prosecuted for kidnapping. Some countries also recognize warrants presented by bounty hunters and extradite fugitives to the United States.
The bounty hunter is allowed by law to impersonate another person in order to obtain information about the fugitive's whereabouts by deception. In many states, the bounty hunter may also enter a building and use force if necessary to apprehend the fugitive. However, he must be certain that the fugitive is in the building. The bounty hunter is personally liable for any damage to property during the arrest.
The laws of the various U.S. states differ significantly regarding the rights and responsibilities of a bounty hunter. In some states, there are no training or licensing restrictions other than the requirements of the commissioning bail bondsman, while in California, for example, several days of state and private training must be attended in order to work as a bounty hunter. In some states, the bounty hunter must register with the courts before making an arrest in order to be protected from kidnapping charges. There are also differences in outward identification: some states require bounty hunters to wear badges and patches identifying them as such. Other states prohibit them to avoid confusion with police officers. Whether police must be notified prior to a planned arrest, or whether bounty hunters may even make the arrest themselves, also varies by region. Some states significantly restrict bounty hunting or prohibit it altogether.
The bounty hunter delivers the fugitive to the police, preferably to the appropriate police of the jurisdiction. For this purpose, many bail bondsmen and bounty hunters carry a warrant so that an appearance at the police station at the place of arrest can be omitted.
The bounty hunter is usually paid about 10 to 15 percent of the bail amount for the capture. This amount is covered by the bail commission paid by the wanted person to the bail bond office.
