3 ms·

So which do you think makes more sense: Police are not allowed to arrest people, or everyone is allowed to arrest?

• icebraining 7y ago
  Everyone being allowed to arrest is actually not far from truth in many places: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen%27s_arrest#United_States https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen%27s_arrest#United_Stat...
• deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
• Frondo 7y ago
  Former private security guard here: in our training, we were told that we, as private citizens, could "arrest" someone, if you're willing to sign your name to an arrest warrant. You'd want to have the cops on the way, and be willing to face a false arrest lawsuit for detaining them, so you'd better be really 100% sure you caught them in the act of doing something illegal. We were also taught it's almost never worth doing this; basically, if someone's shooting people and you're doing an armed job, yes, use your gun to try and stop them or detain them, but if it's just property damage or theft, call the cops and let them do their thing. The risk to you isn't worth it, nor is the risk of a false arrest lawsuit.
  • vonmoltke 7y ago
    I think that hints towards freeopinion's point. You, as a private citizen, should have exactly the same legal liability with respect to false arrest as a police officer. Then the question is, is such a good idea?
• kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
  Everyone is allowed to arrest. Police only get that power as an extension of their citizenship. There was a curious case a few years back of a non-citizen who had been a military police officer and became a civilian cop because nobody checked his documentation. His military activities were perfectly legal but all arrests made as a civilian were invalid.
  • freeopinion 7y ago
    There's also the case of the lady in Florida who pulled the police officer over for speeding.