I was just watching Dog the Bounty Hunter on A&E, and ive watched the show that was on HBO as well about the family of bounty hunters. Which leads to my question regarding their authority. From what I can tell they arent on the same level as a police officer, so do they have any actual authority? They all wear badges, but in the HBO show it showed them going to a store and buying them, so it seems that there is no issuing authority. Is there anyone who regulates these guys? And what if they try to arrest one of their targets and lets say he punches them in the face, it woulndt be the same as hitting a real cop would it. Ive also noticed that none of them carry guns, which would lead me to believe they definetly arent of the same capacity of a police officer. And since they dont seem to have the same authority of a cop, how can they detain people? Would there be any incentive for the people they are chasing not to just take off?

Legalities of bail enforcement varrie across the country as with everything.  Dog and his associates don't carry weapons because I believe Dog is a felon and they live in the land of no handguns known as Hawaii.

Bail enforcement agents, bounty hunters, or whatever you want to call them mostly gain their authority as an appointed representative of the bail company.  They do not make arrest and in are no way LEO's.  There are good and bad points to this that I won't go into.  

Most "bounty hunters" are actually PI's.  Many bail and insurance companies look to hire these individuals because they at least do have some crediantials and are more professional (and bonded/insured) as opposed to an unregulated tough guy.  No offense to those who do operate in the business and are not PI's or LEO's, etc.... there are some good people in the business for the most part, unfortunately not!  The worse case of this was taht I witnessed another "agent" take part in aggravated kidnapping!!!  I severed any relationship between myself and such idiots faster than you can imagine!

I worked in the bail enforcement area for about a year back in the mid 90's, I was a PI at the time too (which was why I even received any cases).  I also worked in cooperation with some LEO's including the Gulf Coast Violent Offenders Task Force (are these even still around?).  The whole game was more about using your mind and not your brawn.  I tricked more FTA's into showing up downtown by themselves rather than drag them down there myself.  We did carry firearms while working but worse I ever had to do was hit a fugitive with a pnuematic stun gun.

Even despite working with some nationaly known insurance companies and bigger bail bondsmen, I still found the business untasteful and quit accepting cases in that area.  Froget the fugitives, the bondsmen and insurance companies were even more crooked!

Quoted: I was just watching Dog the Bounty Hunter on A&E, and ive watched the show that was on HBO as well about the family of bounty hunters. Which leads to my question regarding their authority. From what I can tell they arent on the same level as a police officer, so do they have any actual authority? They all wear badges, but in the HBO show it showed them going to a store and buying them, so it seems that there is no issuing authority. Is there anyone who regulates these guys? And what if they try to arrest one of their targets and lets say he punches them in the face, it woulndt be the same as hitting a real cop would it. Ive also noticed that none of them carry guns, which would lead me to believe they definetly arent of the same capacity of a police officer. And since they dont seem to have the same authority of a cop, how can they detain people? Would there be any incentive for the people they are chasing not to just take off?

As always, each state has its own laws. Since you are in Texas, the law states that they must be a licensed private investigator. They are not police officers and do not have any authority of police officers except to make arrests with a warrant. To do so they have written authorization from the surety or bond company. They have no authority to enter a home without consent of the occupants.