OKLAHOMA CITY – In recent years, bounty hunters in Oklahoma made headlines when a slew of rogue agents made bad decisions.
In one case a man was wrongfully tasered and his dog was shot and killed.
Senator Ralph Shortey says this new law makes it mandatory for bounty hunters to be licensed, giving a clear code of conduct backed by professional training.
“You’ll have to go through the four phases of private investigators and private security training and there is a fifth phase called bail enforcer,” said Shortey.
That training also includes learning the proper protocol for taking someone into custody and for entering a residence. The uniforms cannot look like police uniforms and they must say bail enforcers. If they want to use defensive tools likes tasers, they have to be trained
“The new law is excellent,” said Ryan Owner of Pursuit Team.
While he said this will weed out the bad apples from putting Oklahomans at risk, he believes new paperwork requirements can slow down capturing a fugitive who may be ready to flee town.
Some of those documents are only available during court hours. But Ryan said the benefits of the new law far outweigh the delay in paperwork.
