Bail from the start
The Anchor
I serve as the Executive Vice President and Managing Partner of All-Pro Bail Bonds, a California agency that has been in business for 20 years. Our foundation comes from people who were doing this work for decades before All-Pro opened its doors. That depth of experience shapes how I lead and how we show up for the communities we serve.
I was raised between the coasts, mainly in San Francisco and New York. I’m the youngest of four, with three brothers. Aside from my mother, I was the only woman in the house. In our family, law enforcement was not merely a subject of discussion; it was regarded as the family business. With family in the NYPD, dinner often came with stories from the streets. Those stories taught me early what service costs and what courage looks like. That upbringing pointed me toward my own path. I earned a degree in Criminal Law and set my sights on the ATF, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives. In 1993, after completing the entire hiring process and waiting on onboarding paperwork, I watched the Waco siege unfold. It became a 51-day standoff between federal agents and the Branch Davidians. The aftermath triggered a hiring freeze, and overnight, my plan disappeared. I was standing at a crossroads, asking one question. What now?
One evening, I mentioned the hiring freeze to my brother’s girlfriend. She started asking question after question. I didn’t realize she was interviewing me in real time and quietly measuring me up for the bail industry. She was a posting agent at H&H Bail Bonds, then California’s largest bail agency, and she arranged a meeting with the company president. He hired me on the spot. I was flung into the deep end, new to the work and fully committed to learning.
That pivot became my profession in 1994. I began as a bounty hunter and learned the visceral reality of fugitive recovery from two of the best in the business, Jeff Stanley and Gary Cates. The work demanded everything: discipline, instinct, and humility. I leaned in hard. I became a sponge, and I learned a truth that still drives me. If you aren’t learning something every day, you’re falling behind. More than three decades later, I still start each morning with the same hunger.
Doing investigative fieldwork and fugitive recovery as a woman in the 1990s came with a different set of rules. The field was not kind; it was male-dominated, and credibility had to be earned daily. Doing that work in California, with its restrictive approach to firearms, added another layer of complexity. I built my reputation the hard way and eventually received a concealed-carry permit, something rare for a woman in California at the time. It recognized the inherent risks of the work and the standard I held myself to. I also earned my Private Investigator’s license to ensure my credentials were as solid as my field experience.
Over time, my partnership with Gary Cates became the center of my professional life. We began working exclusively together in the field, and that bond grew into a marriage and a beautiful family. This May 3rd marks 32 years of working side by side every day. We have built a life and a business with the kind of trust you can only earn in real-world moments.
My years working cases in the field still guide how All Pro Bail Bonds operates today. I oversee 16 retail branches and 75 licensed agents. We have some of the highest liability in the industry through disciplined underwriting and relentless follow-through. We also built a supervised bail program from the ground up. For us, writing a bond starts with a detailed interview and continues with weekly check-ins and real-time temperature checks that keep risk visible and accountability constant.
People often ask how we maintain an exceptionally low loss ratio with the volume we produce. The answer comes down to two things: surgical underwriting and decades of pattern recognition. Early in my career, I learned how to identify what I call a human anchor. It is the person, purpose, or structure that keeps someone steady when everything around them pulls in the other direction. I learned on the pavement that accountability, process, and precision keep the system moving. I’ve spent my career building those disciplines into every decision we make.
Susan Shapiro
Executive Vice President
Managing Partner
sshapiro@allprobailbond.com
(408) 500-9419