The Professional Bondsmen of Texas- Blog

How do you navigate the space in the bail reform debate when law enforcement and activists seem to be arguing contrary positions.  One example is the debate over defunding the police.  A study that was highlighted on Episode No. 71 of our podcast demonstrated that defunding the police increases crime immediately not only in the area that the police are removed from but the surrounding area as well.   Also, taking the police out of the community resulted in litigation that resulted in judgments against the city totaling over $32 million dollars. Nevertheless, activists continue to argue that defunding the police will actually make communities safer. How do we navigate between these two positions.  When activists have flooded google with pseudo studies that defy common sense how do we debunk them and find the real science? This is the subject of this episode of The Bail Post. Audio Podcast- Also available on- Apple Podcasts-          ...

Dr. Benjamin Hansen is the W.E. Minor Professor of Economics at the University of Oregon.  He is also the head of the Economics Department.  He Graduated from Birmingham Young University in 2004 with a B.A. in Economics.  He received his M.A. in Economics in 2005 and his PhD in Economics in 2009 from UC Santa Barbara. Dr. Hansen co-authored an article that is the subject of this episode of The Bail Post.  The citation for the article is:  Chalfin, Hansen, Weisburst and Williams, "Police Force Size and Civilian Race,"  American Economic Review:  Insights 4 (2); 139-58 (2022). The article addressed defunding the police and its impact on crime.  One of the conclusions of the study was that decreasing the size of the police force will increase murder rates and that will disproportionately negatively impact certain minority groups.  This means that decreasing the size of police will result in more murders and the number will increase even more for...

In today's digital landscape, identifying the truth about topics like bail reform and cashless bail can be challenging due to widespread disinformation, misinformation, and propaganda. In a recent article in AIA Surety's Insight newsletter their Vice President of Communications, Eric Granof, discusses how much of the information consumers digest comes from internet searches, particularly Google.  Someone asks a question and Google searches the web for the answer and aggregates the best results based on its algorithm.  The problem with this is that Google is not an expert on everything like people expect.  It is simply feeding up what its algorithm believes is the best answer rather than objective truth. As a result, users searching for the truth on any topic related to bail reform, cashless bail or bail bonds will encounter a curated collection of the viewpoints selected by algorithmic preferences, as opposed to what is the truth. How Activist Groups Influence Search Resu...

In the heated national debate over bail reform and cashless bail, one critical perspective is often overlooked: the real families left scrambling when a working parent is arrested for a minor offense. In a recent article, President of the Mississippi Bail Agents Association, Mike Morrison writes about the misrepresented and misunderstood role that bail bond agents play in ensuring families are kept together during the criminal justice process.  Across Mississippi and the rest of the country, arrests frequently happen late at night or on weekends—DUI, traffic violations, or other non-violent charges that do not involve hardened criminals. Without easy access to an effective pretrial release mechanism like a surety bail bond, the accused has the potential to remain in jail longer than necessary.  Cashless Bail Creates Delays and Keeps Families Apart This delayed and unnecessary incarceration is often overlooked and misunderstood. Many bail reform policies that have been supporte...

On August 22, 2025, Iryna Zarutska was killed at the East/West Boulevard station on the Lynx Blue Line, in Charlotte, North Carolina. Zarutska, a 23-year-old Ukrainian refugee who had fled her country because of the Russian invasion, was stabbed from behind three times while seated on the train.  She did everything right.  She and her family immigrated to the United States legally.  They had a sponsor.  She was attending college and was working at a pizza shop.  At the time of the stabbing she was traveling home after work. The entire event was captured on video.  Initially, the video was not seen by the public.  Then everything changed when the mayor of Charlotte thanked the press for not distributing the video.  Then the video was everywhere.   In response to this terrible event, the North Carolina legislature passed Iryna's Law.  It was signed by the Democrat Governor. Join us on this episode of The Bail Post as we discuss the events ...

  As we begin Season 5 of the Bail Post, we are talking about the importance of engaging in public relations in the Criminal Justice System.  One of the things that we have learned over the years is that the activists will never admit that they are wrong or that they are doing more harm than good.  Also, they have learned how to inundate google with pseudo studies that are really nothing more than dressed up press releases from these same groups that many times actually contradict what the actual science says should be the proper course of action.  Therefore, if we are not telling the positive stories of the bail industry and the Criminal Justice System, then these stories will not be told.  If we are not highlighting what the actual science says then many times no one will.   Our guests on today's episode of The Bail Post is our PR Team- Cara Downs and Elliott Chang who are Media Vista PR.  If you would like more information about Cara and Elliott con...

 In 2020, there were protests in Seattle, Washington following the death of George Floyd.  For a period of 24 days, an area that became known as the Capitol Hill Occupation Protest (CHOP) was treated as an autonomous zone where the police did not respond to calls.  As a result, the CHOP zone became an example of what happens when police stop policing.  Dr. Eric Piza and Dr. Nathan T. Connealy largely used data from the City of Seattle Open Data portal, analyzing data from more than one year prior to CHOP with two microsynth models to understand average and seasonal crime trends.  Dr. Piza and Dr. Connealy looked at the impact of crime in three areas:  (1) the CHOP zone; (2) the two block radius around the CHOP zone; and (3) the precinct at large. The results showed a significant increase in crime within the CHOP zone, the encompassing two-block area, and the overall East precinct service area during the occupation period.   The study suggests that call...