Tweeker Seeker

Yea, and I’m sitting here the day after, feeling sick. I’m sure it has nothing to do with the exposure but I was exposed to MRSA yesterday by a junkie I arrested in San Francisco. For those of us who don’t know what MRSA is, it is a Staph infection that is resistant to antibiotics and, in some cases, can be deadly. The fugitive didn’t bother to tell me until after I cuffed her. Silly me for expecting a Fugitive heroin addict to tell me prior to being arrested that she has a potentially deadly infection. Not to worry, I suppose, I’ve already been exposed to Tuberculosis, Hepatitis, Scabies (disgusting) and several other communicable diseases. This is just one more perk to being a Bounty Hunter I guess, or just something for my resume.

I get asked a lot about what it takes to be a Bounty Hunter. I get everything from the legal requirements, work experience and physical requirements. In California it’s pretty simple. You must be a least 18 years old and can’t have any felony convictions . You must also do the following:

• Complete a 40-hour “power of arrest” course certified by the California Bureau of Security and Investigative Services commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (POST).
• Complete a “power of arrest” course certified by the Bureau of Security and Investigative Services.
• Complete a 12 hour of education relating to the duties and responsibilities of a Bail Licensee certified by the Department of Insurance.

All of these requirements can be found here. Okay, so that’s the legal requirements which are fairly easy to complete since no testing is required. Now let’s list the physical and mental requirements. If you’re okay with the following then you should have no problem doing the job.

• Can you sit in your car for 10, 12 or 18 hours staring at a house?
• Are you okay with peeing in a big gulp cup in your car?
• Are okay with eating 2 day old fast food?
• Are you okay with being spit on, punched, kicked, screamed at, pepper sprayed or tasered?
• Do you like to fight?
• Are you comfortable touching homeless people or searching homeless encampments (which may include walking through human feces)?
• Are you okay with someone pointing a loaded gun at you? This includes cops, criminals and parents or friends of criminals.
• Are you okay with being awaken at 3 in the morning by annoying phone calls from informants, defendants or parents / friends of defendants?

If you said no to any of the above questions then this job is probably not for you. However, if you said yes to the above then you may want to seek mental help.