National Certification...

Should there be a national standard for the training and certification of bail enforcement agents? Secondly should the federal government though enacted legislation force the subordinate states to regulate bail enforcement and the agents who ply the profession?

_________________
Domestic Security Investigations
P.O. Box 4462
Rockville, MD 20849
Tel: 1-800-387-0787
Anti-Moral Majority Club President
"Fear not the unknown, Fear the person who controls the unknown" Gene 7:14

I believe that sort of undertaking would be extremely difficult to implement simply because of the unique bail laws of each state where commercial bail is permitted. Certain actions that are lawful in one state may be unlawful in another state. If something like this were to take place, would we not be required to learn and know (by heart) all of the bail laws for each state? I'm all for higher standards in education and training, but I just don't believe that this sort of undertaking would be feasible.

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Jason Pollock
Owner/Operator
Surety Risk Management
Los Angeles, California
(323) 786-FIND

"Approach is Everything."

Let me agree with Jason by taking it a step further, in the interest of simplification. It won't happen. EVER. Too much at stake for individuals and agencies and jurisdictions within each state. NABBI is working toward a standardization of training and something resembling certification that, while required for NABBI membership, would be more like a strongly suggested guideline to the actual state governments since we cannot directly impact the laws. But, even this is a long way off.

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Tom Duprey
Founding member, NABBI (Nat'l Assoc. of Bail Bond Inv.)
Ca. Bail Agent Lic#1845795
Owner/Operator, Thomas Duprey Bail Bonds
Owner/Operator, Orange County Bounty
(714) 727-4689

Thanks Jason and Tom for your comments, I concur with you both. However for the sake of debate or conversation let me embellish the premise just a tad.

What if the legislation is enacted by U.S. Congress also calls for the subordinate states to adhere to a uniformed bail system that would be a national standard in other words all of the individual states would be required to apply bail in the same matter.

Using that premise bail enforcement agent training would be standardized would it not. Thus it would ensure that the numerous states that do not currently regulate bail enforcement take action for the betterment of public safety.

_________________
Domestic Security Investigations
P.O. Box 4462
Rockville, MD 20849
Tel: 1-800-387-0787
Anti-Moral Majority Club President
"Fear not the unknown, Fear the person who controls the unknown" Gene 7:14

Although this is highly unlikely to occur, here are my opinions on the matter:

1. Yes, it would serve to create national uniformity in regards to bail enforcement training, education, standards, and operations. Ultimately, it would probably result in requiring all bail enforcement agents to secure some sort of license or permit to operate in that capacity. After receiving the appropriate education, it is highly likely that bounty hunters would no longer have to worry about investigating the legalities and lawfulness of our profession while conducting operations in foreign states. Standardization of the laws could eliminate a lot of the "guess work" (for lack of a better term) involved in our profession.

2. Those states which have outlawed commercial bail and bounty hunting should then be mandated to adopt the new act and legalize our professions within their boundaries. This would be great for our profession and the best interest of the public. We all know that commercial bail is the most effective pretrial release mechanism, bar none.

3. Interstate recoveries could be simplified by enacting national uniform bail regulations. If properly written, the act could help to greatly mitigate liabilities in regards to the potential for unlawful arrests, due to the unique laws of each individual state.

4. While many issues would have to be addressed, and the "powers that be" would most likely spend years studying the current bail regulations of each state, before deciding which new national regulations to adopt and enact, I don't think that it would be an entirely bad thing. Keeping that in mind, it could become a bad thing if those authorities decided to make things more strict or difficult for us than they actually have to be. This is where the topic of bail exonerations comes to my mind and raises a few questions. Who would decide which regulations to adopt? How would these decisions be made? Would our industry professionals have any "say-so" or "sway" in deciding these matters? Could changes like this cause our virtual "house of cards" (our individual businesses and our profession as a whole) to come crashing down?

I hope that I don't sound like a pessimist here, because that is definitely not my intention. My mind just wanders sometimes... This is a great conversation.

_________________
Jason Pollock
Owner/Operator
Surety Risk Management
Los Angeles, California
(323) 786-FIND

"Approach is Everything."

But what if the nationally applied program was pre trial release and not commercial bail? Be careful of what doors you open.

Scott

_________________
R.E. "Scott" MacLean III

"Leaders are like Eagles, you never see them in a flock, but one at a time"

Chesapeake Group Investigations, Inc.
Chesapeake Bail Bonds
877-574-0500
301-392-1100 (fax)
301-392-1900 (Office)

Exactly, even if they allowed commercial bail to continue having the Federal Government standardize bail regulation would likely lead to the creation of a Federal Bureau of Bail and Fugitive Recovery responsible for regulating the issuance of bonds and doing the recovery work. Requiring all BEAs to have designated P.O. status would seem to be a logical consequence. Not that it would be a bad thing, but it would really complicate things and change the industry beyond recognition.
Sort of a Private Airline Security to TSA scenario.

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SoCal
Administratioin of Justice student
iaywah1 at yahoo dot com

Trying to learn the ropes, and stay out of the way.

NO . . . and create yet more Government Employees to tell us how to do our jobs . . . I think not. I also agree with Scott . . . I could only see the end of our Profession.

Besides . . . that is what N.A.B.B.I. is for to set a std. across the board.

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Do not consider anything for your interest which makes you break your word, quit your modesty, or inclines you to any practice which will not bear the light, or look the world in the face .... Marcus Antonius

I AM Some Folks "KARMA" and A MODERATOR @ FRN

While there are some things i.e investigation and apprehension tactics that may be applicable nationally, the laws, regulations etc... differ from state to state, so I don't think a national certification would be practical.

As for Federal Laws/Regulations, this is something we've been working on over the past 18 months. We've reached out to a number of Legislators and 2 have shown an interest in looking at it. One had a legislative aid do some research and the research indicated that it would contravene states rights if Federal Legislators enacted laws concerning bail recovery at the state level (not necessarily cases under the jurisdiction of federal courts, or perhaps interstate cases where a defendant flees the state). However, if Federal laws were enacted in these cases they would be in addition to state laws, not a replacement of them. Things could get overly complicated and the UCEA which is still a gray area for bail recovery in many states could end up getting applied across the board, which in my opinion would be a very bad side effect.

The best we could hope for would be the establishment of guidelines/standards by the Federal government. It wouldn't be a law or binding on the states per se. However, certain Federal funding to the states could be contingent upon the states adhering to these guidelines. This is how the Federal government forces states to do certain things in a round about way. Similar to how back in the 90s the US DOT told the states to raise the speed limit to 65mph or lose certain federal funding. Traffic laws are the domain of the states and the federal government has no authority over it. However, they can use federal funding contingencies to pressure states to adopt federal guidelines/standards. This happens all the time and could perhaps be done in the case of bail recovery. Unfortunately, the recovery side of the commercial bail industry is not where the money and lobbyists are, so it's an uphill battle.

I think the best we could hope for would be a program such as the AMA, National Bar Association or even the PBUS Bail Agent Certification program.

All have standards or requirements for their membership and continuing education requirements.

These programs, including the PBUS one bestows a recognition that shows the member has met minimum training and education and may have also completed more training that is required by their states.