Bounty hunter

A bounty hunter captures fugitive for a monetary reward (bounty). Other names, mainly used in the US, include bail agent, bail enforcement agent, bail officer, fugitive recovery agent, fugitive recovery officer and bail fugitive recovery specialist. In the United States legal system, the 1872 U.S. Supreme Court case Taylor v. Taintor, 16 Wall (83 U.S. 366, 21 L.Ed. 287), is cited as having established that the person into whose custody an accused is remanded as part of the accused's bail has sweeping rights to recover that person (although this may have been accurate at the time the decision was reached, the portion cited was obiter dicta and has no binding precedential value). Most bounty hunters are employed by a bail bondsman: the bounty hunter is paid a portion of the bail the fugitive initially paid. If the fugitive eludes bail, the bondsman, not the bounty hunter, is responsible for the remainder of the fugitive's bail. Thus, the bounty hunter is the bail bondsman's way of... full article at wikipedia