Tom Delaney has been working as a surety bail bondsman in the Brookings area since 2000. A Register motor route driver and U.S. Census Bureau worker, the family man also uses his law enforcement experience to help get defendants out of jail.

By all accounts, Tom Delaney seems like your average family man. He and his wife, Debby Haase Delaney, have seven children between the ages of 10 and 29. She home schools the youngest two, one attends high school, and the others are grown and on their own. Delaney's a busy guy: He delivers a motor route for The Brookings Register, and he also works for the U.S. Census Bureau. But one other part-time job also has him making frequent visits to the Brookings County Detention Center Delaney is one the city's few local bail bondsmen.

Delaney became a bail bondsman in 2000, after he saw a classified advertisement placed by a company wanting to expand into this area. He interviewed and was tested, and now he's licensed with the South Dakota Division of Insurance.

Delaney has worked for three companies over the past eight years, presently contracting for one based out of Rapid City. He works mostly with defendants in Brookings County, but has also offered his services in surrounding counties.

Bail is a monetary guarantee that a person released from jail will show up for court hearings . Delaney is a surety bondsman, meaning he can help get someone out of jail if that defendant can come up with 10 percent of his or her bail amount, plus fees for his services. When someone is arrested and bond is set, they may give Delaney a call. Delaney meets with that person at the jail, deciding if he or she is a good risk. He doesn't have to bail just anyone out of jail, and he often relies on his gut instinct to tell him who he wants to help.

"So I go in there and interview them, see what they're like, if this is someone that I feel is not going to jump. That's a very big consideration, because if someone jumps bail, I have to pay the whole thing out of my pocket. That's not something I'm interested in doing."

Delaney says he and a defendant enter into a bond contract, which is like a small loan. Whoever needs bailing out must have a cosigner with a job, strong ties to the community and other characteristics that show he or she can be trusted. Ten percent of the bail amount and Delaney's fee are non-refundable , and the co-signer has to be willing to pay Delaney the full bail amount and fees he'll lose if the defendant doesn't show up to court.

His instincts must be good, because in eight years, Delaney's only had one person jump bail on him.

That time, he did not call a bounty hunter. "I knew where she had taken off, gone north into Canada and then headed west. She was stopped by the RCMP in British Colombia, but they got called away from the stop so she went on to Alaska, and eventually the Federal Fugitive Task Force knocked on her door and brought her back to South Dakota." Potential for danger

Delaney said the job could potentially be dangerous, but he's been out of harm's way so far. As a former military police officer , he even conducts his own follow-up investigations.

Even with that experience under his belt, Debby always tells him to be careful when he heads out.

Besides instinct and a co-signer , Delaney looks for other signs when deciding is a person is a good bail risk. One indicator is his or her criminal history, and especially whether he or she has jumped bail before. Family nearby and a steady job also help.

Most of the people Delaney meets as a bail bondsman aren't bad, he says. They just make bad choices. Just bad choices

"Most of it is a veneer, it's a fa'§ade . You talk to these people one-on-one , and for the most part they're just average people who just haven't got a real knack for making good decisions.

"When I go into the sheriff's department , there's really not much attitude involved. You don't want to provoke someone who's trying to get you out of jail. "¦ You meet the nicest people in jail, but I encourage them to reconsider what they're about, get help. Don't come through here and think you're going to get away with anything, because chances are that you're not."

The part-time bondsman feels he's an advocate for the people he bails out. "I like to help people out, and what they're essentially doing is signing themselves into my custody."

Delaney is originally from the Chicago area but has lived here for 30 years. He's earned bachelor's degrees in English and geography from South Dakota State University and is a certified teacher. Besides his own law enforcement experience, he comes from a family of police officers.

And Register readers should be happy to know that life in his current hometown is a lot quieter than where he grew up. "Business is pretty slow in Brookings. I'm there when I'm needed, which isn't all that often.

"People in Brookings are nice. I like Brookings. It's a nice town, and most of the crime is just nuisance stuff. "¦ I've met very few hardcore criminals. Most of them are just regular folks who have made poor decisions."

Contact Jill Fier at jfier@brookingsregister.com.