Posing as a saleswoman, wearing fancy dress and apprehending murderers is all in a day's work for bounty hunter Gina Kennedy.
Gina Kennedy is a woman of many roles. To her daughter she is a loving mother, to her grandson she is an adored grandmother and to fugitives across the US she is their worst nightmare.
Based in Oakland, California, Kennedy, 43, is responsible for tracking down and capturing some of the US’s toughest criminals. Kennedy says there are only eight female bounty hunters in the state of California and only a handful across the country.
Kennedy, who has arrested 4,000 fugitives in a career lasting eight years, says she never wanted the simple life.
‘I love this job so much I’d do it for free,’ she admits. ‘Once you start chasing people and feel that adrenalin you get addicted to it. I don’t see myself in a nine-to-five job. I would die if I worked in a bank.’
As a woman in such a dangerous profession, she has received mixed reactions from her male colleagues. ‘I’ve had to work with some real jerks with big egos and chips on their shoulder,’ she says.
‘In this career guys don’t want a prissy, whiny little girl working with them, which is understandable. We go into some serious situations and they’re just concerned I’m not a ditsy female who’ll do the wrong thing.
'After they’ve been on a few hits with me they see I’m level-headed and know what I’m doing and it’s then that I get accepted. Guys expect me to be hiding behind them but I’m always first in
the door. Because of that they give me respect.’
So what does it take to become a bounty hunter? ‘It helps that I’m bilingual,’ she says.
‘There’s a course at the police academy that gives you the power to arrest. You also need to do a bail bonds pre-licensing class so you can understand some of the bail law and you have to have your firearm permit and training for a Taser.’
Bounty hunters fall under a specific law so the fourth amendment (which guards against unreasonable searches and seizures) doesn’t apply to them.
‘There’s no protocol we have to follow and we don’t have to read people their rights when we arrest them,’ she says.
‘Because this is insurance-related, if we believe a person is in a residence and we have a visual on them, we can enter. A police officer would need a search warrant.’
Kennedy works an average of 157 hours every two weeks, with each day varying dramatically.
‘When I walk into a house I’m basically walking through a vertical
coffin as I just don’t know what’s on the other side,’ she explains.
‘I’ve had guns drawn on me many times.’
On the other hand, she talks about dressing up and being used as bait by her colleagues. ‘I’ll take off my gun and badge and I’ll go knock on the door pretending to sell cosmetics or with a picture of a dog, saying he’s lost. People on the run are really paranoid and won’t open the door if they see one of my big, intimidating partners.
‘As a female I’m not seen as threatening and I certainly don’t look like a bounty hunter. People don’t think twice about opening the door for me.’
Kennedy reckons women are the hardest criminals to track down. ‘They usually hook up with a man who’ll take care of them,’ she says.
‘Women are also more dramatic. Men just want to run but women have hissy fits, pee their pants, vomit and faint. Sometimes I’ll lose my patience but usually I just tell them they need to put their big-girl panties on and deal with it.’
Although there is a fun, adventurous side to a career that lends itself to film plots – most recently depicted in the romcom The Bounty Hunter, in which Gerard Butler pursues Jennifer Aniston – Kennedy also reveals a dark side.
‘There have been times when I’ve been handed a case and then received an e-mail straight after saying: “Gina, the case about Mrs X you’ve just received, she was murdered last night.” It’s very sad and I think if only I’d gotten the case ahead of time I could have saved them,’ she says.
But on the positive side there are lots of dangerous criminals Kennedy has caught and put away for life. ‘The way I see it is these people made their choices and every choice has a consequence,’ she says.
‘They did something wrong and the fact I caught them and put them away gives me satisfaction.’ Kennedy works on around 25 cases at any one time and at the moment is looking for a father who made his 12-year-old daughter pregnant and a man wanted for a triple murder.
Although she loves her profession, Kennedy admits it’s causing her to lose hope in humanity.
‘I’ve become callous and I think to myself why are these people wasting our air? You only get one shot at life and it makes me sad there are so many people who don’t value their lives.’
The Bounty Hunter is out now on DVD
Bounty hunting: The facts
A bounty hunter captures fugitives who have breached their bail terms.
It is legal in only two nations: the US and the Philippines. Other countries use standard law enforcement agencies.
A bail bond is an insurance contract to force the defendant to attend court.
Hunters can work independently or for an insurance company. Independently, they collect ten per cent of the bail the fugitive paid but other bounty hunters receive a salary.
It is illegal for a bounty hunter to bring a fugitive back from another country as it is classed as kidnapping.
Famous bounty hunters
Duane Lee ‘Dog’ Chapman
Chapman starred in his own weekly reality show, Dog The Bounty Hunter, which was broadcast in Britain on Virgin 1 and Bravo. He made the news in 2003 for capturing Max Factor cosmetics heir Andrew Luster in Mexico after he fled his trial for drugging and raping numerous women. Luster was jailed, however Chapman and his team were arrested in the US on behalf of the Mexican government for apprehending him. Chapman made the news again in 2007 with a racial slur against his son’s African-American girlfriend. His show was subsequently taken off air.
Domino Harvey
This English-born bounty hunter was portrayed by Keira Knightley in the 2005 film Domino. She stood out as a woman and because of her privileged background – her father was Oscar-nominated actor Laurence Harvey and her mother a model. She was in and out of drug rehabilitation and in 2005 was arrested for conspiring to possess and distribute methamphetamines. She was awaiting trial and under house arrest when she was found dead in a bathtub in West Hollywood. Harvey also had a cameo in the 2005 film Constantine, starring Keanu Reeves.
LINK - http://www.metro.co.uk/lifestyle/836290-making-tracks-all-in-the-frill-of-the-chase
