Throughout my life I have heard of it and yet have never actualy heard of a time when it was used. I have always wonderd if there was an actualy thing and well maybe someone here can help me. Is there really a so called citizens arrest? and if so, what does it take to make one??
To my knowledge, it takes the presence of a police officer. Othewise, you’re just holding/possibly assualting someone. You can’t go placing handcuffs on people you want arrested for noise violations or whatever, but if you see someone stealing, say, and you know there’s a police officer around, you can grab the officer, tell them you want to place the person under citizen’s arrest for theft, and then the officer will interrogate them, and if you’re right, arrest them.
But you can’t just go walking around “arresting” people by yourself.
Sorry, can’t resist:
[GomerPyle]Citizen’s Arayest! Citizen’s Arayest[/GomerPyle]
Of course you can. If you are the victim of, or witness to, a felony, and the felon must be restrained to protect people and/or property, you can use an appropriate amount of force to do so.
God help you if you’re wrong, though; if the person you arrest did not commit the felony in question, you are liable for false imprisonment, assault, possibly kidnapping, and more. You have none of the police officer’s traditional immunities, and your “reasonable belief” is a slim reed in a strong current.
I saw it happen on Cops once. IIRC, the police didn’t witness the crime and so they had the eyewitness go up to the perpetrator and say, “I’m placing you under citizen’s arrest.” Then the police hauled the bad guy off.
If only Cecil had something to say about this.
- Rick