If something on my person sets off one of these devices (the type that give off an alarm and have a flashing red light, usually set up as tall vertical scanners at store exits), and a security guard or member of the store staff asks to search my belongings, am I allowed to refuse? What legal rights do I have in this situation?
I live in Alberta, Canada in case this question is jurisdiction-specific.
My question is “why would you refuse?” I was wrongly accused of theft and made a few thousand dollars out of it.
Care to elaborate? Via PM or email is fine if you’d rather not go into it on the boards.
At the time the security guard asks to search your bag you have not been accused of theft, you’ve just been asked for a favor. If you wanted to be accused of a theft, you’d play hardball and refuse a search. Then the guard would have to decide whether to detain you or let you go.
Threads about the legal rights of a retail establishment to detain and search shoppers usually come and go fairly regularly, as can be witnessed in these threads.
this is like a matrioshka topic!. I have never seen a matter where every thread on it so promptly produces a complete list of all the previous threads on it. How long do I have to wait to start a new one to see if this one get linked?
At any rate, I think I have posted on this before. If the alarm sounds, I just keep walking and they never follow me (I have never stolen a penny, of course). Only once I was stopped and when asked (In the usual, “I am law enforcement and I mean business” tone), my response was: “If you search this bags and find something stolen, you get your thief. If you don’t find anything, what do I get?”. After that the guy was very corteous and polite.
As several of those previous threads mention, some states give store owners certain rights to detain people they have reason to believe have shoplifted. A buzzer going off is likely to give them enough evidence to detain you if they choose, but they may not choose to do so for a variety of reasons. I’m not going to venture into the question of whether they can search your person.
I hope by “accused of theft” you mean more than just “asked to search your shopping bag”, correct?
I’ve wondered about this. I never stop for those damn alarms, and I haven’t been stopped yet.
However, if they were to attempt to detain me, what legal rights to I have? What can they do if I run away? What if I were to detain them instead for assault (which I would consider them forcibly detaining me to be, though I don’t know if the law agrees)?
I have seen most of these threads, but so far, there doesn’t seem to be one with advice about Canada or Alberta specifically, so the OP hasn’t really been answered for their location. Does someone happen to know the specifics in Alberta?
NB
http://www.dca.ca.gov/bsis/publications/poa.pdf - This appears to be for California.
It’s not assault (or may not be, IANAL) if they are exerting their Merchant’s Privledge in holding you with good cause. Know your rights, but know the store’s rights as well.