Keep Bailing

Technology isn’t the only thing that’s changed since my father, Cal Rynerson, opened his Orange County bail bonds company in 1971. The Internet, fax machines, and cell phones have all changed how customers find us and how we do business. Another big change has been in how bail bondsman are trained and licensed.

Unlike 30 years ago, it’s now possible to wake up one morning, say: “Hey! I think I’ll become a bail bondsman!” and about 6 months later open your own company. Sometimes, the old ways really were better.

When Dad became a bondsman, he was required to complete what was called an apprenticeship with another licensed California bail agent. After learning the business and basically getting the approval of the licensed agent, the apprentice could get licensed and go out on his own. The licensed agent would invite an apprentice into the business and sponsor him.

My father worked with a bondsman named Pete Devitch. Pete is a bit of legend in the bail industry. I remember Pete as a colorful guy, full of great stories, who always carried around a wad of hundreds. Read more »

From Pencils to Pagers to Blogs

If you have kids, you’ve heard them giggle, “You didn’t even have cell phones when you were a kid! Did you have electricity?” As I prepared to launch the Keep Bailing blog, I realized how lucky Greg and I are to have modern tools that Greg’s dad, Cal Rynerson, never even dreamed of when he started his bail bond business almost 40 years ago.

Cal Rynerson, became a licensed California bail agent in 1969 and started Rynerson Bail Bonds in 1971 (the same year Roy Tomlinson sent the first email). That was before personal computers, before fax machines, before cell phones, before websites. Cal did business the old fashioned way, with pens, paper, and face-to-face personal interaction. (Imagine that?)

With an office located directly across the street from the Santa Ana jail, he regularly had walk-in customers. He wrote 95% of his bonds for the local jail, often handling 10 or more bonds each day. Ten bonds may not sound like a lot, but each one requires a bail bond interview, paperwork, and a trip to the jail. At the time, the average Southern California bail bond was around $500.

Now, the average bail in So Cal is around $20,000. We’d be lucky to write ten bonds in a week! With the proliferation of internet and the glut of competition, Greg and I need to write bonds all over California. There’s no way we could do business the way Cal did 30 years ago. Read more »