The repo man will tell you he has to take your car. Though he might feel bad about it personally,  he's just doing his job.

These days, many people are hearing that familiar refrain - the repo man has become increasingly ubiquitous in these troubled economic times. Previously, he'd been an anonymous figure, outside of the public eye and largely outside the law. But repo-man profiles have become surefire signs of the recession: It's stylish for local TV stations to ride along with the repo man as he tracks down his targets.

All in all, it seems like this should be a boom time for the repo industry - but it’s not as thriving as you might expect. Violence, desperate debtors, and a decline in financing are putting the repo man himself in a bind.

It isn’t that there are fewer repos now. Nationwide, repo orders rose to 1.67 million last year, up from 1.49 million in 2007 - attributable to defaults on cars bought over the previous 12 to 24 months, according to used-car auction company Manheim. However, vehicle financing is down 32% from a year ago, which is an ominous sign for repo men.

“This isn’t the prime time in our business,” Les McCook, head of the American Recovery Association, told the Wall Street Journal.

The reason: When credit was easy to secure (think of the no-money-down approach espoused by companies like GM (GM), Chrysler, and Ford (F), among others), many delinquent borrowers simply handed over the keys. They could always get another car. Now, many debtors are desperate to keep their cars, evading the repo men at all costs. But repo men don’t get paid unless they get the car.

“When you do find them, they’re the ones who are going to come out raising Cain,” Tony Cooper, a repo man, told the Journal.

Cooper, who operates 24 tow trucks in the Carolinas, told the Journal that his revenue fell 23% in 2008 from the previous year, and he's had to let 5 of his 45 employees go. Competition has also pushed his per-car fee from between $350-$400 to $250. Other repo men report receiving similar fees.

And the business is becoming more violent. Autoblog recently reported, “With repossessions predicted to exceed 1.7 million vehicles this year, and the industry itself loosely regulated, violence during lawful repossessions is also predicted to rise.”

Only California, Florida and Louisiana license and keep track of repo men. This leaves 47 states in a lawless, unregulated vacuum. Federal law only states that they can’t “breach the peace.”

Alabama, for example, is considered the Wild West of repossessions: One repo man is awaiting trial for murder after a late-night shootout, and 2 other repo men from the same company have been shot -- one fatally -- in similar late-night confrontations.

The industry may be the only one pushing Washington for more regulation.