Range Day

Today was a great day of training for the 3EIFRU crew. Coordinated by Chris Dunn from Covered Six, at a semi-local range, it was nothing ultra-high-speed, but some good re-familiarization for me. Some of it was new to the new guys, but all took to it like ducks to water and moved right along. Everyone needs a little polishing on something, of course.

Then, Sensei's bike conked out and we had to load it in the back of my pickup to get it back to L.A. Finished off the day with some training at the dojo, then back home for a well-deserved evening off.

Filming promo material

Third Echelon FRU spent yesterday filming in Elysian Park. Interviews, closeups of gear, some informal stuff of us all telling stories, and things like that. This is to add to other footage we shot a few months back and put it together into something to show the network executives to sell the show.

It was a bit irritating to be directed. None of us are actors, or want to be, and having to redo things to look better for the camera was a pain. We all agreed in about a half a heartbeat that there will be no direction from the producers when we're on the street.


Anyway, we had a good time, got some good footage, and Redneck came home with a red neck (and face).

Newbs make good

Sensei took Viper and Beast out today and made an arrest on a file we just picked up last night. Third arrest for the new guys. Great work!

In other news, 3EIFRU is filming interviews tomorrow for the show. Watch for it!

Update

It's been busy lately and I haven't been updating this as much as I'd like to, but here's some of what's happened lately.

- I did a solo arrest on a guy down in Norwalk who didn't want to go. We wrestled a bit and he gave in - but it was too late to make it easy on himself, as someone else had already called the Sheriff's Department. They bum-rushed him, choked him, slammed him into the wall, and put my flex-cuffs on him a lot tighter than I would have. And as a result he went to jail with no shirt and no shoes. He's wearing a T-shirt in the pictures because one of the bondsmen standing outside the jail couldn't pass up the chance to get some free advertising inside the jail.

- We lost Jester and Fox, and added Remy, Viper, and Beast to the team.

- Beast and I arrested this one:

- Viper and I arrested this one:

- Sensei, Remy, Beast, Viper, and I arrested this one:

whose original charge was forgery. He had a passport in another name, but luckily we had a good picture from the bondsman. Without the picture (yeah, I'm talking to you, Mr. Don't-bother-to-get-all-the-info-and-a-pic-of-the-damn-defendant. You know who you are), we would have had to leave him there.

- Then we lost King. So the team as currently composed is Ronin, Sensei, Redneck, Remy, Viper, and Beast.

And that was just last week!

Bounty Hunting in the News

First, from Wilson Quarterly. This one starts off with a terrible example, as the guy is an idiot and the case they highlight got him arrested and jailed. And then skipped bail himself! Nonetheless, it'll be informative to anyone outside the industry.

Then, a more scholarly (and a bit drier) article from George Mason University, comparing public (police) and private bail enforcement.

Enjoy!