Here is a free chapter from 101 Weird Ways to Make Money (you can order the book through the link to the right).
Chapter 8
The Business of Chasing Criminals
Bounty Hunting Careers
I was a skip tracer many years ago. Sometimes confused with bounty hunting, skip tracing is simply finding people. I did this primarily by phone when working for a collection agency, and I had to actually physically locate the person being sued when I was a process server. Bounty hunters, also called “bail enforcement agents,” use skip tracing techniques, but their job is more interesting and dangerous than simply locating someone.
They are primarily hired by bail bond agencies. Suppose a court sets bail at $50,000 for someone charged with theft. A bail bond agency might charge the accused $5,000 (and sometimes require collateral), and then give or guarantee the court the $50,000, which is forfeited if the defendant doesn’t make it to trial on time. In this case, rather than lose the $50,000, the bondsman pays a bounty hunter 10 to 15 percent of that amount to find the defendant and bring him to jail to await his next court date. This can be difficult and dangerous work, but bounty hunters catch as many as 31,000 bail jumpers per year, with an almost 90 percent success rate.
Money
The question of how much you can make is a difficult one. It obviously varies with your success rate and how many cases you handle. If you work for a bounty hunter as hired help, you might be paid by the job, or a percentage of what he makes. Several websites estimate annual income at between $50,000 and $80,000 for bail bond agents, but without reliable sources. Suffice it to say that some full-time bounty hunters pay all their bills with their work.
Bigger money is made with running your own bounty hunting business, and is also a function of the size of the bail in each case. A job that pays 10 percent of a $200,000 bail bond can make for a good month. Of course those larger fees usually come with more dangerous bail jumpers. Finally, other revenue sources include starting your own bail bond agency, writing about your work, or getting famous. Dog the Bounty Hunter, of the television show by that name, certainly makes more from his program than he ever did as a bail enforcement agent.
How to Get Started
You need a license in some states, while others don’t require any formal training or licensing; only a contract with a bail bondsman is needed to start working. California requires a background check and training courses, and bounty hunting is illegal in Kentucky. Ask a local bail bondsman what the laws are in your state, and what you can do to train for and get hired to do this work. These jobs are not typically advertised.
Clerical work in either a bounty hunter’s or bail agency’s office is a good way to get a feel for the industry, and for that particular employer. It is best to start with a team or at least one other bounty hunter, rather than trying this on your own.
Resources
Modern Bounty Hunting: A Real-Life Guide for the Bail Fugitive Recovery Agent, by Rex Venator – (Paladin Press, 2005): A book by a guy in the business.
http://www.bountyhunt.com/new_hunter.htm: A guide to getting started, put together by a professional bounty hunter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bounty_hunter: A decent overview of the history of bounty hunting and relevant laws, plus a lot of links to more information.
