Timeline for Practical reasons to have both a large police force and bounty hunting network?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
13 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mar 7, 2019 at 11:10 | comment | added | Eric Nolan | As far as the questionable tactics thing goes:- "Rogue cop" is a much different problem for the authorities than "rogue bounty hunter". If a bounty hunter kills a bunch of schoolkids while firing an automatic weapon on the motorway the government can throw them in jail and the job is done. If a cop does that there's a big investigation about training and standards and oversight and the authorities have a multi million credit law suit to deal with. Bounty hunters give the authorities distance from questionable tactics. This doesn't mean they them give unlimited freedom to murder at will. | |
| Mar 7, 2019 at 9:51 | comment | added | Thorne | Pay more for alive and unharmed. | |
| Mar 6, 2019 at 19:36 | comment | added | Hannover Fist | The Death Squad issue might be circumvented with different bounties for dead and alive - depending on how much the gov wants the suspect alive. | |
| Mar 6, 2019 at 17:27 | comment | added | Delioth | Hell, you can even up the ante on the "pay" aspect. Since bounty hunters have to be licensed, you can put a fee on that license - a year's license is $100 or whatever to help cover costs of running the bounty program. With a good licensing system you could include modifiers that must or may be on a license (e.g. you might have different levels of certification allowing different targets to be turned in - shooting above or below your pay grade gives lower rewards because of risk, having 90% successful turn-in lets you designate your target and disallows others from collecting that bounty, etc) | |
| Mar 6, 2019 at 17:06 | comment | added | ratchet freak | @Spencer that would depend on the jurisdiction and the permissions in the permit. For one it cannot force extradition from another sovereign territory unless treaties between the territories are in place. Bounty hunter licenses could very well be per state/county and you cannot operate as one outside your territory. | |
| Mar 6, 2019 at 14:06 | comment | added | Graham | @nalzok Blackwater in Iraq, for an obvious answer. The only difference between a bounty hunter and a mercenary is whether you want their targets alive or dead at the end of it. And as we all know from Blackwater, plausible deniability and hence almost total lack of oversight was a massive part of their operation. | |
| Mar 6, 2019 at 9:10 | comment | added | Flater | @WhatRoughBeast: There are compromises here. E.g. bounty hunters are not allowed to kill a target, but aren't blamed for the fugitive getting hurt. This opens the door to some forms of torture (with no obvious wound patterns), the bounty hunter can claim that it happened while resisting arrest, and the government can choose to not particularly punish this behavior (under the guise of "he shouldn't have resisted arrest!") if they can benefit from asking bounty hunters by skirting (but not provably transgressing) the fugitive's rights. It can lead to death squads but it doesn't have to. | |
| Mar 6, 2019 at 5:52 | comment | added | WhatRoughBeast | If the bounty hunters are not held accountable for "regrettable excesses", they will quickly become essentially mercenary death squads. It's whole lot easier to just kill someone than it is to arrest him. And if the government does not provide effective protection for the bounty hunters, they in turn will become targets. The result will be a lot of civilians killed in the crossfire. This in turn is going to really impact how the government is perceived by the population. Plus, of course, the police will misbehave and blame it on bounty hunters. This trend will not end well. | |
| Mar 5, 2019 at 23:27 | comment | added | Spencer | This is good, but also mention that police and sherriff's deputies have to stay within their jurisdiction but bounty hunters don't. | |
| Mar 5, 2019 at 19:26 | comment | added | Darrel Hoffman | @nalzok It is in some places. And some bounty hunters have gotten into trouble for it when they get a little too rough. There was even a reality show about one in the US a while back... | |
| Mar 5, 2019 at 17:17 | comment | added | nalzok | Now I start wondering why this isn’t the case in the real world... | |
| Mar 5, 2019 at 15:51 | comment | added | T-Me | +1: All for the money... Outsourcing risky jobs that aren't regularly scheduled routines. Especialy in a high bureaucracy where all that matters are the numbers, presented to the higher ups. | |
| Mar 5, 2019 at 5:20 | history | answered | Thorne | CC BY-SA 4.0 |