as far as a bounty hunter goes you can shoot them
Howdy Pard!
I ain't sure how to take that particular line there. As I AM a bounty hunter, certified by the State of Colorado, I have certain rules that I must live by.
For starters, a bounty hunter in Colorado must have 16 hours of P.O.S.T. (Peace Officer's Standard Training) approved training. After that, a test must be taken. The test is then submitted and a passing grade is required. I passed mine with like 96% or 98%. I don't actually recall right now, but it was pretty good.
A bounty hunter has some wider capability than an actual police officer in some instances, while having a more highly restrictive authority in other instances.
For example, we go to arrest a "skip", as we call them, we are not authorized to arrest anybody except for the defendant named in the paperwork. Where does the paperwork come from? It comes from a bondsman who bailed the defendant out of jail. The contract between the defendant and the bail bondsman has requirements that must be strictly followed by the defendant, principal among them, his appearance in court at each and every court date. When the defendant does not show up for court, or violates any other restriction the bondsman has placed him under, the bond is violated. The bondsman now has authority to arrest the defendant and take him or her back to jail.
Just a word about the whole arrest thingy.... the defendant is never "not under arrest", but remains under arrest until a verdict is rendered in his case. The bondsman will bail out a defendant from jail, but in essence, has now become the defendant's jailer of choice. He is now under custody of the bondsman. The purpose of being out on bail is not to party, play around and have a good time. It is for the defendant to maintain his job, work with his attorney to prepare his defense in court, and work on setting his affairs in order should s/he be convicted. The bond contract may stipulate the defendant is 'not to leave town', 'must call the bondsman each day to check in', and 'not imbibe alcohol or take drugs', or any other limitations the bondsman writes into the bond. The bondsman has the authority to arrest and return the defendant to the custody of the court of jurisdiction (i.e. jail) at any time he feels the contract has been violated. In fact, the bondsman may revoke a bond without any specific reason whatsoever, and return the defendant to the custody of the jail of jurisdiction.
The bondsman has the authority of arrest. However, many bondsmen do not go after their own skips. Most won't return a defendant to jail unless they blow off their court date. That's one violation of the contract the bondsman won't tolerate. The bondsman has put up whatever the bond amount is... and if their defendant skips, they end up having to pay the courts the amount of the bond. They generally dislike doing that. They could also end up on the ''board', and that's something no bondsman wants to have happen. The bondsman will seek to apprehend the skip who has failed to appear (FTA) and can contract with a bounty hunter to arrest the skip. This authority to assign arrest authority to a bounty hunter stems from an 1872 SCOTUS case known as Taylor v. Taintor. It stipulates the following authority to the bondsman:
They may exercise their rights in person or by agent. They may pursue him into another State; may arrest him on the Sabbath; and if necessary, may break and enter his house for that purpose. The seizure is not made by virtue of new process. None is needed. It is likened to the rearrest by the sheriff of an escaping prisoner.
As a result of Taylor v. Taintor, the bounty hunter does not need to Mirandize the defendant when re-arresting him or her. The bounty hunter may kick down the door of a house known to be owned by the defendant to take him prisoner. The bounty hunter does not need to fret about a search warrant, or probable cause. He is required, however, to have a certified copy of the bond and an arrest warrant in his possession when undertaking fugitive recovery (as it has come to be known.)
A police officer is limited to specific jurisdictional boundaries. Not bounty hunters, as we can cross into other states to apprehend. (caveats galore on this one!!!)
Bounty hunters carry a variety of police style equipment and use tactics that police officers might find very familiar. But we cannot stop traffic violators, arrest people for anything and everything, but strictly limited by terms of a contract for a specific arrest of a particular individual. The bounty hunter can, however, arrest a felon they see committing a crime, just as any citizen of Colorado may, but he is not a police officer. He must not claim to be a police officer, nor suggest he is acting under color of police action. He is a fugitive recover agent, bounty hunter, bail enforcement agent, etc. He ain't a cop.
Quite frequently, bounty hunters will work closely with cops and it is not uncommon for cops to use bounty hunters to gain information about a felon both are interested in capturing. It is not at all uncommon for bounty hunters to supply information to the police that they cannot otherwise get. Police will also share information about a fugitive the bounty hunter is chasing that has not yet been uncovered by the bounty hunter. Bounty hunters will often ask for a "Civil Assist" or "Civil Standby" from the police department, and sometimes the police will ask the bounty hunters to share information they gain on surveillance missions.
All of which has nothing to do with Game Wardens.
Police officers must follow strict guidelines to ensure Constitutional rights are not violated in the performance of their duties.
Game Wardens are not civilians, but agents of government. Ergo, they are also required to follow Constitutional guidelines.
Any government entity giving authority to a police agent, whether town marshall or police officer, or sheriff's deputy, is responsible to ensure their officers are aware of law, due process and all the rest of Constitutional limits on authority.
Bounty hunters, while not being bound nearly so closely to Constitutional rights, must nevertheless honor certain among them. Bear in mind, the bail bond contract with the defendant is one the defendant understands when accepting that they waive certain Constitutional rights.
We certainly cannot shoot a defendant unless there is a clear and present threat of deadly force against us.
In most cases, the level of force we may employ is the same as any civilian may apply.
If somebody threatens to punch you in the nose, you cannot draw your weapon and shoot them.
The same goes for bounty hunters.
You cannot, as a civilian OC'er, point your gun at anybody you please. That's called felony menacing.
The same goes for bount hunters. We may have a handgun, but if we point it at anybody not threatening our own life with deadly force,
we commit felony menacing.
We also can be charged with kidnapping by making people move or moving them to a different location in a house where we suspect the fugitive may be hiding.
Our authority only applies to the fugitive, and we have no authority over anybody else who may be present.
The notion that Game Wardens have some sort of carte blanche to do what they will, above and beyond any Constitutional limitations, is simply not true.
Nobody gets that sort of authority granted by any public or private means to simply set themselves above the Constitution, except perhaps the IRS!!!
Not Peace Officers,
Not Bail Agents,
Not Bounty Hunters,
nor Game Wardens.
Blessings,
M-Taliesin