Kathy E <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
The House is considering stricter regulation of the nation's bounty
hunters.
A bill before the House Judiciary Committee calls for bounty hunters
to undergo background checks, carry liability insurance, and announce
themselves before bursting into a home.
Committee members today praised the profession for catching as many
as 88 percent of the bail jumpers they pursue -- compared to the 10
percent recovery rate of conventional law enforcement. But Rep. Robert
Toricelli, D-N.J., who sponsored the bill, said abuses by ``overzealous
or even criminal bounty hunters...have become far too common.''
Rep. Asa Hutchinson, D-Ark., compiled a litany of 27 recent bounty
hunter abuses. In one case, a New York woman was abducted from her front
porch and brought handcuffed to Alabama, where the sheriff confirmed
what she and the New York police had already said -- the bounty hunters
had the wrong person.
In another instance, armed bounty hunters broke into the hotel room
of a vacationing Rhode Island family in Flordia and held a gun to the
mother's head, until they realized she was not the convicted prostitute
they were looking for.
Other cases included a pregnant woman beaten until she miscarried, a
bystander shot in the chest, and fugitives transported in car trunks or
tied to the roofs.
The bill would ask a national bail enforcement agency to run quick
background checks to ensure that convicted felons are not working as
bounty hunters. It also directs the attorney general to set out uniform
bail bond guidelines for states, particularly a requirement that bounty
hunters must ``knock and announce'' before entering a home.
And the bill would hold bail bond companies liable for the excesses
of the bounty hunters they hire.
--
Kathy E
"I can only please one person a day, today is NOT your day, and tomorrow
isn't looking too good for you either"
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