where is fugitive recovery legal?

Answer 1

Apparently in the United States: In the United States legal system, the 1873 U.S. Supreme Court case (Taylor v. Taintor, 16 Wall (83 U.S. 366, 21 L.Ed. 287), is erroneously cited as having established that the person into whose custody an accused is remanded as part of the accused's bail has sweeping rights to recover that person (although this may have been accurate at the time the decision was reached, the portion cited was obiter dicta and has no binding precedential value). Most bounty hunters are employed by a bail bondsman: the bounty hunter is paid a portion of the bail the fugitive initially paid. If the fugitive eludes bail, the bondsman, not the bounty hunter, is responsible for the remainder of the fugitive's bail.

Thus, the bounty hunter is the bail bondsman's way of ensuring his clients arrive at trial. In the United States, bounty hunters catch an estimated 31,500 bail jumpers per year, about 90% of people who jump bail. Bounty hunters are also sometimes known as bail enforcement agents or fugitive recovery agents, which are the preferred industry and polite terms, but in common speech, they are still called "bounty hunters" or "skip tracers."

In the United States of America, bounty hunters have varying levels of authority in their duties with regard to their targets, depending on the states they operate in. As opined in Taylor v. Taintor, and barring restrictions dictated by the state in which the bounty hunter is operating, a bounty hunter can enter the fugitive's private property without a warrant in order to execute a re-arrest. In some states, bounty hunters do not undergo any formal training, and are generally unlicensed, only requiring sanction from a bail bondsman to operate. In other states, however, they are held to varying standards of training and licensure. In California, bounty hunters must undergo a background check and complete various courses that satisfy the penal code 1299 requirements. In most states they are prohibited from carrying firearms without proper permits. However, Louisiana requires bounty hunters to wear clothing identifying them as such. In Kentucky, bounty hunting is generally not allowed because the state does not have a system of bail bondsmen, and releases bailed suspects on their own recognizance, thus there is no bondsman with the right to apprehend the fugitive. Generally, only fugitives who have fled bail on federal charges from another state where bounty hunting is legal are allowed to be hunted in Kentucky. In Texas, every bounty hunter is required to be a peace officer, Level III (armed) security officer, or a private investigator.