How Do Bail Enforcement Agents Find Fugitives?
If you've posted bond for someone only for that person to skip out on their bond and avoid going to court, you might have been advised to work with a bail enforcement agent. After all, if the person who you posted bond for isn't re-arrested, you might be on the hook for the whole bond amount. If you put up collateral to get that person out of jail, you might lose that collateral—even if it is your home or business. Before hiring bail enforcement services, you might be a bit curious about what these individuals do. For example, you could be wondering how they find fugitives. These are some of the methods that they use when doing their jobs.
1. Doing Surveillance
A bail enforcement agent might head to the places where a fugitive is known to spend time—such as at their home and place of employment—to do surveillance. This gives them the opportunity to look for the person, even if he or she isn't home when they first arrive.
2. Checking Social Media
In the past, bail enforcement agents didn't have the opportunity to use social media to find fugitives. Now, this is a popular means of looking for these individuals. Since many people share a lot of information on social media nowadays, this can be a very effective way for a bail enforcement agent to find a person. The person might actually post where he or she is at on a public post, or there might be clues in pictures and posts that a bail enforcement agent can use to find a person.
3. Talking to Others
Sometimes, bail enforcement agents simply talk to others to get information about the whereabouts of fugitives. They might call their friends or family members, for example, and ask if anyone has any information on the whereabouts of the fugitive. Some of the people that they contact might not have any information or might not be willing to share any information that they do have. In some cases, though, simply talking to the people that a fugitive knows provides bail enforcement agents with the information that they need to find people.
These are some of the methods that bail enforcement agents use to start looking for people who might have skipped out on their bail. Depending on the situation, they might use other tricks to locate people who did not show up for court.