The Professional Bondsmen of Texas- Blog

It is with deep regret that I inform you of the passing of long time PBT member and bondsman,  Bruce Embrey  , owner of A Action Bail Bonds in San Antonio, Texas. Our prayers and sympathy are with the family during this trying time. Mike Byrd PBT President Obituary for Bruce Evans Embrey July 10, 1948 - October 18, 2019 San Antonio, Texas | Age 71 Bruce Evans Embrey was born on July 10, 1948 and was called home to be with the Lord on October 18, 2019. Bruce was a lifelong San Antonio resident, graduating from Jefferson High School in 1966. Bruce started his family business, "A Action Bail Bonds", in 1977 and was well known throughout the Bail Bonds industry. He spent his life helping friends, family, and employees in any way he possibly could. During the Winter when Bruce was not at the office, you could find him deer hunting in South Texas and Mexico with his sons, brothers, and old hunting buddies. In the Summer, he would be fishing and floating the Llano River with family

PBT President   Fellow PBT Members: As your newly elected President, I would like to thank everyone who attended the Annual Convention and, most importantly, thank the sponsors and exhibitors for making this year’s convention such a success. It is my pleasure to introduce you to your new Board of Directors: Officers: Mike Byrd – President Clay Nicklas, Vice President Moni Salinas, Treasurer Irma Montemayor, Secretary Paul Schuder, Parliamentarian   Board Members: Matt Clark, Ronnie Long, John McCuskey, Stan Stanley, Glenn Meeker, Scott Walstad, Ken Good, Sonny de la Chica, Blanca Aregullin-Gandy, Cory Lee, Chris Konnecke, Rene Ortega, Judy Grandmaison-Warren and Zina Meeker. My first request to the Board is that we all  work together toward our common goal  – the betterment of the bail industry in Texas.  We are here to represent Texas bondsmen and urge our members to become involved with PBT by volunteering to be on a committee. My first immediate goal is to increase our membership. 

In July of 2019, twenty-seven of the nation’s leading researchers in the area of predictive algorithms sent letters of concern to several political leaders in California and Missouri.  These researchers represented a broad spectrum of academic institutions including Harvard, MIT, Princeton, NYU, Columbia and UC Berkeley. These letters outlined the concern that these researchers had about the growing support for the use of algorithms in the criminal justice system, specifically in California and Missouri.  Both states have recently planned to make wholesale changes to their criminal justice systems by incorporating the use of risk assessments into their pretrial processes.  The correspondence from these 27 researchers was intended as a warning to these jurisdictions to beware of these algorithms. According to the research group, these algorithms have fundamental flaws that will lead to negative consequences.  They stated, “Although pretrial risk assessment tools are often promoted as an

While bail reform advocates cheerfully support the wholesale free release of defendants who have been accused of a crime, the results are rarely something to brag about.   Over the past three months, there have been several of stories about people being released from jail thanks to bail reform.  Most of the time, these releases end badly. Nonprofit Pays Bail For Man Who Attacked His Wife, Hours Later He Murders Her Read the full story by clicking  HERE . Teen who shot HPD officer was out on P.R. bond Read the full story by clicking  HERE .

To coincide with The Professional Bondsmen of Texas’ 49th annual convention, the Steven G. Whitlock Memorial Golf Tournament (“SGW Memorial”) is being held in San Antonio for the first time, after 29 years of taking place in Dallas. The annual event that benefits children battling cancer will tee off at 1:00 PM on Wednesday, October 9 at The Quarry Golf Course.  The charity golf tournament was founded by Mike Whitlock, twin brother to Steven who, in 1989 at the age of 26, lost his life to brain cancer.  Struggling to deal with the death of a young man who lived life with passion and was friends with seemingly everyone he ever met, Mike and his family came up with the perfect way to honor his memory.  Through this fun event, the SGW Memorial has raised more than a half million dollars over the years — with all the money going to send kids to Camp Esperanza outside Dallas.  The summer camp offers boys and girls battling cancer a week of fun and friendship while building confidence and in

In the most recent Texas legislative session, Texas considered several bills to propose certain reforms to the Texas bail process. Several of the bills included matters that had been attempted in Alaska and were considered failures and were repealed. Consequently, the Majority Leader of the Alaska Senate provided written testimony to the Texas Legislature. In part the testimony stated: “I write to you today as the Majority Leader in the Alaska Senate, a fellow lawmaker, and an initial bill sponsor for major criminal justice reform legislation passed in 2016. Unfortunately, since those reforms were passed, we have seen tremendous negative consequences to our communities. Last session, I introduced a repeal bill and this session, Alaska Governor Dunleavy has introduced a package of bills to repeal and replace what remains of SB91.” To read the testimony in its entirety by  CLICKING HERE .

The October 2019 PBT Newsletter has been published.  You can see it by  CLICKING HERE .