LEGISLATION REGULATING BOUNTY HUNTERS ADVANCES

         Harrisburg, September 19, 2007 -- The state Senate Judiciary Committee today unanimously approved legislation (SB 615) to regulate bail enforcement agents, also known as “bounty hunters” in response to a request by Senator O’Pake following recent incidents in Reading.
         “We have constitutional protections that prevent government from acting the way bounty hunters do. This bill will make sure that we also have protections against them,” the Reading Democrat said.
         “We need to put safeguards in place before someone, particularly someone innocent, gets hurt,”
O’Pake said. “We cannot have wannabe 'Dog The Bounty Hunters' Ramboing into people’s home and businesses.”
         The Committee scheduled the bill for action after O’Pake requested it in the wake of a September 4 incident in Reading.
         The legislation requires bounty hunters to have the same firearms certification required for police, to notify police before conducting an operation in a community, and prohibits individuals from working as bounty hunters who have felony records or are prohibited in other states from acting as bounty hunters because of their conduct.
         The bill now goes to the full Senate for consideration.

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