WWW arkcity.net

By RHONDA ROSS
Staff Writer

Justin Thurber, 23, of Ark City, was arrested over the weekend for false impersonation.

Interim Chief Sean Wallace said Thurber, a bounty hunter/bondsman employed with Morris Bail Bonds on North C, claimed to be working with the Ark City police in order to gain entrance to an Ark City residence to conduct a search.

"He was looking for a guy who jumped bond," Wallace said. "He told them (the residents) that he was working with the Ark City Police Department and that he had a warrant to search the house."

Wallace said his department does not have a bondsman or any bounty hunters working for them.

"If they represent themselves as an Ark City Police Officer agent, they had better have a badge and an I.D. number," he said.

A representative at the Morris bond company who answered the phone this morning said that Thurber does not work there.

Wallace said people should confirm with the department before letting anyone search their homes.

"If it's us, we'll have a lot of officers there and at least one will have a uniform on and we may just kick the door down, unless it's a low profile entry where we know that the people inside aren't going to be a danger to us."

He said in those cases, police will knock and tell the resident that they have a search warrant.

"We can force our way in, but we'd rather they just let us in," Wallace said.

By law, they (bounty hunters) have the right to search homes, but it has nothing to do with police, Wallace said.

"We don't get involved with that. We let them do their thing, within the statute. But if they say there's a bench warrant and they're going to go get this guy, we say, 'No, you're not. We're going to go get them and we'll put them in the county jail and if you want to go revoke their bond, you can.'"

Wallace said if there's an active warrant on someone, police don't let the bounty hunters serve it.

"We serve it," he said.