Bail bondsman shocked at bill from police department
| Sunday, Jun 21 2009 12:31 PM
Last Updated Sunday, Jun 21 2009 12:31 PM
When bail bondsman Glen Pierce asked local police to pick up a fugitive in Arkansas he didn’t expect to get a bill for $8,200.
But that’s exactly what he got.
The bill covered the cost to fly two officers out to Fayetteville, put them up in a hotel and then airfare to bring them both — and the inmate — back to Bakersfield.
In the past, police say they have eaten the cost of those trips. But now they are passing the cost back to the bail bond companies.
“It would be unreasonable for us to not try to recover taxpayer money under these circumstances,” police Capt. Kevin Stokes said.
With the tight budgets the city face, it only makes sense to reduce city costs, he said.
The police weren’t even aware until recently that they could recover the cost, Stokes said. “If we had know about it earlier, we would have gone about it earlier,” he said.
But the Kern County Sheriff’s Department picks up the tab itself and has no plans to change.
“If someone is wanted on a warrant, it’s kind of our job to pick them up and bring them to court,” sheriff’s Chief Deputy Willy Wahl said. But he noted the sheriff uses a low cost, cooperative system with other sheriff’s departments in the western United States to bring fugitives back.
Other bail bond people said they are willing to pay to get fugitives back. If one of their customers skips town and is not found within six months, they are on the hook for paying the full cost of the bail, not just the 10 percent people can post to get someone out of jail.
Vince Sims, manager of Bail Bond Leon, said he winced at an $1,800 police bill to bring someone back from Las Vegas. He said the city started charging four months ago.
Nancy Brock, owner of Brock’s Bail Bonds, said most companies go out and bring back fugitives themselves. The bond companies can recoup any police costs by charging the person who posted bail, but all the bonds people agree that rarely works.
Pierce said he doesn’t have a problem paying the police costs, but he thinks the Bakersfield police could have done it cheaper.
He got wide-eyed at the airfare — $6,000 for the two officers and the inmate. “This is totally unfair,” he said.
He checked out airfares for the same airline and trip and found he could have saved more than $3,600, he said.
Pierce also objected to overtime pay for one officer and the price of a hotel bill.
Stokes said police use a travel agency to book flights so it was out of its hands. He said the officers did try to reduce overtime and other expenses on this trip.
Pierce said the dispute will be resolved through a lawsuit.
The case in dispute is about 35-year-old Michael Brooks Rall who skipped on his $10,000 bail in January. He was jailed on felony burglary and petty theft with a prior charges.
Pierce, using the MySpace pages of Rall’s girlfriend, tracked him to Springdale, Ark. where ultimately Rall turned himself into that police department. Bakersfield police picked him up last week.
