The phrase ”Bounty Hunter” brings to mind tough individuals doing tough work. Hunting down fugitives, kicking in doors and slapping the cuffs on the bad guy, it’s all the stuff of legend and television lore. From Steve McQueen in Wanted: Dead or Alive” all the way up to “Dog: Bounty Hunter”, the very mention of the profession conjures up images of mean-looking men with big guns, loaded for bear and ready for action.
Now the Philadelphia Police Violent Crime Task Force, in conjunction with the FBI, have managed to do a lot more damage to the job’s image than Duane “Dog” Chapman’s racist rants. They’ve launched a website this week, www.phillybandits.com, which encourages every Philadelphia resident with sharp eyes and a computer keyboard to become bounty hunters in their own living rooms.
Of course, no law enforcement agency would encourage citizens to risk their safety by going after criminals, so the info on the site stresses that all tips can be anonymous – unless, of course, you’d like to trade that tip for cold cash. We’ll go into more detail on the profit of snitching later.
On visiting the site, you’ll be invited to “take a look at the web site articles and see if you recognize anyone. Tips can be submitted by clicking the "Submit a Tip" button. Any tip can be helpful!”
And what an attractive array of ne’er-do-wells awaits you with the next mouse click. Bank robbers, rapists, serial bandits, murderers, and many more are on display, complete with photos, descriptions, and details of the crime. In clicking through mug shot after mug shot, the one common thread appears to be that no one combs their hair for these photos, or is ever apprehended wearing nice clothes.
Then there’s that annoying little voice in your ear that asks if the authorities had this dirtball in custody long enough to shoot his picture, why do they need our help to find him now? Blame the revolving door of our criminal justice system, but hey, if they’re offering cash rewards to re-capture this same idiot again and again, why shouldn’t you profit from their incompetence?
Which brings us back to making money off this supposedly low-risk venture.
If you have a good memory for faces, chances are you’ve seen one of these folks around the neighborhood, on public transportation, or walking through Center City. You just start fiddling with your laptop or handheld device, like everyone else on the bus, except you open phillybandits.com. Check the face against the mug shot, (just in case he’s combed his hair since then) and hit the “Submit a Tip” button.
Now you’re faced with a decision: to remain anonymous or not? Depends on whether you’re submitting a tip out of a sense of civic duty and good citizenship, or whether you’re looking to collect a reward – maybe just a few grand, you know, to ease your troubled conscience over violating the ‘Stop Snitching’ rule. Here’s how they word it on the website: “Tips can remain anonymous and there is no requirement to fill out any of the fields below. However, if you wish to be considered for a reward, we need to be able to contact you.”
You can pick any way you’d like for them to contact you, and if your tip proves out – bingo! You just became a bounty hunter - bringing ‘em back alive, and snitching for fun and profit.
And if the endless stream of Philadelphia fugitives isn’t enough for you, just click on the “Links” button, and you’ll have access to their sister web sites: New York Bandits, Washington, D.C. Bandits, Western Pennsylvania Bandits, Chicago Bandits, and dozens of bandit catchers from New Hampshire to Los Angeles.
You don’t even have to stop there. Many web sites, both privately run and government sponsored, list fugitives in every zip code and how to make money turning them in. My favorite, www.wantedfugitive.com, only lists fugitives whose reward for capture is more than $10,000. Just in case you don’t want to trouble yourself with petty local shoplifters, and prefer to go big game hunting.
And, as they keep reminding us, you get to do it all without kicking in doors, without violent confrontation, and without personal risk. Law enforcement catches up to the Internet, and suddenly everyone with web access becomes a bounty hunter, and every wanted criminal becomes a walking ATM machine.
As if the criminals don’t already have enough to worry about, now they’re going to have to enforce a ‘Stop Clicking’ rule.
