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" http://members.delphi.com/kathylaw/ Law & Issues Mailing List http://pw1.netcom.com/~kathye/rodeo.html - Cowboy Histories http://www.geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/2990/law.htm Crime photo's Subscribe/Unsubscribe, email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] In the body of the message enter: subscribe/unsubscribe law-issues