But official congressional logs still show it as alive and well. In committee testimony, Hutchinson has maintained he offered the bill because bounty hunters are free to break into the homes of people thought to be criminals, without any accountability to innocent individuals who may be injured because of wrongful and abusive conduct. He has said in the past that his sole intent in pushing the legislation is keeping innocent citizens safe from the abusive actions of rogue bounty hunters. Abuses happen, admits Billy Wells, director of the U.S. Professional Bail Bond Investigators Association, another of several groups that offer membership, training and supplies to bounty hunters. The bad rap that goes with bounty hunting certainly must be due in part to the proliferation of quickie training courses touted on the Internet, including some that seem to imply that capturing fugitives is an easy path to big money.
Some outfits also offer limited insurance policies and supplies such as pepper spray and stun guns.
Those wanna-be bounty hunters who have watched too many Western movies may be in for a rude awakening when they encounter the realities of the field. More often than not their manhunt involves tracking someone who has committed a relatively minor offense and allowed it to escalate into a felony by ducking a court date and jumping bail. Ninety-seven percent of these people are not criminals, Barth asserts. They are stupid people who will go out and get a traffic summons and work it up to a felony. Barth says those who come to the field and stay basically are blue-collar workers.