How Does a Bounty Hunter Spend a Workday?

A bounty hunter works in conjunction with bondsmen. He may work with one particular bondsman in his office, or he may work out of his own office. Generally, the bounty hunter works for himself, even if he works in a bondsman's office. The bounty hunter does not have a typical workday; he works any hour of the day to complete his assignment.

A bounty hunter is generally available via his cell phone or a pager service, as he is often not in his office. If calls are routed through a secretary in his office, he will call to check in with the secretary to see if there are new calls to attend to. If he does not have a secretary, he takes his own calls.

If the bounty hunter is not actively hunting for a criminal, he can be found in his office doing research or administrative duties. Since a bounty hunter hunts a person who has a bond and has absconded so he does not have to appear in court to answer for his crime, the bounty hunter must do some research in order to find the absconded criminal. He may call family and friends in an attempt to get information on the criminal. He will also track and trace paper trails made by the activities of the criminal.

Once the bounty hunter gets a lead on the criminal, he will check out the lead. This may involve traveling across town, across the country or even out of the country. If he does not find the person he is looking for, he will return to his home office and attempt to find another lead to track down. Once the bounty hunter finds the criminal, he takes the criminal into custody and turns him into the jail or brings him directly to court, depending on whether there is an immediate court date.

At some point, between chasing fugitives, the bounty hunter must attend to his administrative duties. The bounty hunter gets paid a percentage of the fugitive's bond. The bondsman who has a bond on the fugitive pays the bounty hunter for finding the fugitive for him. These payments need to be documented and deposited into the bank. The bounty hunter must also complete accounting reports. He will print and turn them into his accountant, if he has one. If not, the bounty hunter may do his own accounting, creating balance sheets, income statements and profit and loss statements, among other accounting reports needed to track his income.

If the bounty hunter has employees, he must also do payroll, employee-benefit updates and human-resource duties such as hiring and firing staff. The only inventory a bounty hunter may keep on hand is ammunition. He makes sure he always has plenty of ammunition, and the proper ammunition for whichever weapon he may be carrying at the time (bounty hunters have a license to carry a concealed weapon).