Delegate Jim Scott's Richmond Report

Finally, Bounty Hunters to be regulated!

As readers of this column may recall, I have tried on several occasions to persuade the General Assembly to pass legislation regulating bounty hunters. In Virginia, as in some other states, they have operated under a 19th century Supreme Court decision that gives them more authority than police. In search of a fugitive (known as a “skip”) they can enter homes and businesses with impunity. Their only oversight was by Circuit Court judges who had little power to curb outlaw behavior.

A study committee that I chaired held hearings on possible bounty hunter regulation throughout the state. In each case, people came forward with scary accounts of bounty hunter behavior. Unfortunately, the House was unwilling to act, however, to curb abuses.

Two years ago, I suggested that the Crime Commission study the issue. Last fall the Commission issued its report recommending far-reaching legislation. I am pleased to report that the legislation, which I co-sponsored, has now passed the House and the Senate. In my view, it is model legislation. It is the most stringent bounty hunter regulation in the nation. It requires background checks, continuous, training, licensing and supervision by the Commonwealth’s Dept. of Criminal Justice Services.

“Help us Governor. We can’t do it without you.”

Over and over again I have heard leaders of the House say they must protect the prerogatives of the legislature. According this theory, the executive branch must be precluded from interfering in the operations of the legislative branch. Most recently, that conviction resulted in the passage of a bill to gut the freedom-of-information law as it applies to the legislature. As a result, only legislators will enforce limitations on secret meetings of House and Senate members. Of course, the sponsors of the new bill included no such exemptions for local legislatures—boards of supervisors or city councils. Instead, it is do as I say, not as I do, in Richmond.

In regard to state finances, those same leaders rarely missed an opportunity to denounce executive intervention in the budget approval process. “The Governor proposes and the legislature disposes,” they have frequently said.

Now they are blaming the Governor for not intervening. It is deliciously ironic, that, when they had a Republican Governor, they didn’t plead on the floor of the House for his help to break the 2001 budget deadlock.

Now they seek the aid of a Democratic Governor to solve a budget crisis they can’t fix. Then they want him to sign a bill undermining the law against secret meetings. If they can’t agree on a budget, do we dare let them decide whom to punish for flouting prohibitions against secret meetings? In short, can they govern?