Haven’t you ever wanted to be like some Superhero when you see someone commit a crime? And there are no police officers around to help? Those big heroes step in and stop the wrongdoer. And then they leave them handcuffed to some telephone pole until the cops roll around.
Even if we had the physical strength to do that, are we allowed to do that? The good old Citizen’s Arrest.
Well. Historically, until about 200 years ago, uniformed police officers and police departments didn’t exist in the United States. Not as we know them today. So. It was up to the citizens to arrest criminals.
This dates back to 1285. It was then that England introduced what we now know as “citizen’s arrests” in a law called the Statute of Winchester. That law allowed any person to arrest lawbreakers. And then, this same concept spread throughout the English colonies. You know. This country. And others. Australia, Canada and the United States.
But here, in the United States, citizen’s arrests have a sordid past. Originally, only white men could make citizen’s arrests. By the mid-1600s, many militias and city watchmen, especially in the South, used that power to intimidate and terrorize enslaved and free Black communities.
It got pretty bad. This practice continued through the Civil War, the Jim Crow era, and even into the 1900s. There were loads of vigilantes doing terrible things, including lynchings.
I mean, think about recent news where this has continued. It was in 2020, when Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was jogging around his Georgia neighborhood, was shot and killed by a group of white men who accosted him because he was running.
Despite this history, most states still have citizen’s arrest laws on the books.
So. What is the law?
Well. the word “arrest” literally means “to stop.” But that can be tricky. Because if someone wants to leave, you usually can’t stop them. If you do, that could be considered false imprisonment or even kidnapping.
And yet. Citizen’s arrest laws are an exception to that general rule. They allow everyday people to make an arrest, which means holding the lawbreaker in place until the police arrive and take over. Tricky.
Another tricky thing. The rules are a bit different in every state. You’d have to be sure about crossing the “t” and dotting the “i” before pinning your badge on your chest.
But according to most state laws, anyone can do it. Even age is not a factor.
There are all sorts of hazards in trying to make a citizen’s arrest. First of all, you better be sure someone committed a crime. In most states, if you make a mistake by making a citizen’s arrest of someone who didn’t actually commit a crime, the person you arrested can sue you.
Using physical force is an entirely different matter. You can get into trouble for using too much. We’ve seen this in the news too.
And then, of course, there is the danger of getting hurt yourself in the whole process. No good deed goes unpunished, I’ll tell you.
But I can tell you this much. I can’t stand crime.
And yet? I won’t be making any citizen’s arrests any time soon. As in. Never.
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“The first duty of society is justice.” – Alexander Hamilton
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“Laws control the lesser man… Right conduct controls the greater one.” – Mark Twain
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“Crime is the price society pays for abandoning character.” – James Q. Wilson
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Stop right there, you thief.
