Your friend walks out of the shop and approaches you with a mischievous glint in his eye.
Why is he smirking like that?
He only went to buy the both of you a few snacks.
Now he’s closer, you can make out a weird bulge on the left side of his jacket.
There’s clearly something he wants to surprise you with.
He reveals from underneath his coat an entire twenty four pack of energy drinks.
What are those doing there?
And how did he even make them fit?!
You ask him if he stole the case of drinks.
Worry flashes through his eyes as he looks around before leaning in and telling you to
be quiet, but that just sets you off.
He might not have said the words himself, but his reaction confirms your suspicion.
Your best friend since high school is nothing more than a petty thief.
You beg him to return the drinks, but he refuses, saying he can’t now.
It would just put him in more risk and besides, it’s from a big business, it’s not like
he mugged a little old lady.
But you refuse to back down.
At least one of you has a moral compass.
He shrugs, puts the case of energy drinks back in his jacket and walks away.
What an immature loser, you think to yourself.
Then you panic.
You can’t just let him get away with this.
You must enforce justice!
And then you remember something you once saw on a TV show: citizens can make arrests.
You’re not sure exactly how it works, but how hard can it be to arrest someone?
Impulsively, you run after him, grab him from behind, and pin him to the ground.
He resists and struggles, but he’s not strong enough to push you off.
Then you announce that he’s under arrest.
He looks at you like you’re mad.
Surprisingly, citizen’s arrests aren’t just a thing on TV and actually are totally
legitimate.
That’s right — everyone from your grandmother to the local shop owner can carry out an arrest
without a warrant, so you’d best watch out.
If you’ve ever seen a superhero movie, you might wonder how the good guys always manage
to arrest the bad guys, no questions asked.
You’ll be pleased it’s not one rule for superheroes and another for everyone else
— all US citizens have the right to arrest criminals under certain circumstances.
It’s not just the US that allows citizen’s arrests.
Many other countries do too, including Canada and the United Kingdom — but it’s confusing
enough to analyze one country’s set of laws, so we’ll be sticking to the US.
And it does get pretty confusing.
So, before you start rounding up everyone you know who has pirated a movie, vandalized
private property, or smoked something funny, you might want to listen up.
Just because citizen’s arrests are a thing, it doesn’t mean they’re always a good
idea.
There are some pretty technical details, and complex rules involved.
To understand them, we’ve first got to delve into the differences between common law and
statute laws.
Common law isn’t officially defined in writing, it’s understood by judges based on past
court cases and their common sense.
In contrast, statute laws can be traced back to legislation officially written up, whether
it’s a state or federal law.
It’s not down to the interpretation of the judge.
Originally, citizen’s arrest came under common law, and it still does in some states.
Say a man ran into a building and started pointing a gun at everyone, but someone managed
to disarm him and put him under a citizen’s arrest.
The judge could use common law to say that the man who arrested the gunman did the right
thing and didn’t need to be prosecuted.
But these days, citizen’s arrest comes under statute law in most cases, which sets clearer
boundaries and leaves less room for interpretation.
The exact legislation varies between jurisdictions, but there are a few points that almost always
stand.
For less serious crimes, known as misdemeanors or infractions, citizen’s arrests are generally
deemed unnecessary and unacceptable.
The only exception is when a breach of peace happens — but defining a breach of peace
is another complicated issue altogether.
In the case of a serious crime, known as a felony, citizen’s arrests are almost always
seen as acceptable.
But of course, there’s a catch.
Even when a citizen's arrest takes place because of a felony being committed, there are some
restrictions.
You can’t use more force than is strictly necessary when carrying out the arrest, and
you must have either witnessed the crime or known it took place.
Police officers can arrest someone if they suspect they’re guilty, but regular citizens
can only arrest them if they know for sure the crime really happened.
So, weirdly, citizens can be held to higher standards than actual law enforcement officers
when it comes to arrests.
It might sound counterintuitive, but think about it.
You don’t want every man and his dog to go around arresting people on a whim and not
facing any consequences for it.
People could just start arresting their friends for a joke or that certain someone at work
who keeps taking your very much not stolen energy drinks out of the office kitchen fridge
even though you bought them specifically for your afternoon pick me up and they have your
name on them and why can’t they just buy their own if they like them so much!
What were we saying?
Oh yeah, in other words, these powers should be reserved for very special occasions.
So, what happens if the person carrying out the citizen’s arrest did get it wrong?
You’re about to find out.
So there you are, sitting on your friend’s chest as you pin his arms to the ground.
What’s going on?
In the adrenaline rush of taking this perp down, you felt powerful for a brief moment.
But now, you just feel stupid.
Can you even do this?
You’re sure you saw this on TV but now you don’t remember much about what happened
after the takedown.
And maybe it wasn’t factually accurate.
Would TV lie to you?
Then, your friend starts laughing, saying that you really took him by surprise there.
It’s like he thinks you’re just joking around.
It’s tempting to go along with it since you don’t really have any idea how to carry
out a citizen’s arrest anyway, but then you remember there’s a greater meaning behind
all of this.
It’s not just about you and your friend.
It’s about taking a stance against robbery.
How could you live with yourself knowing that someone got away with stealing and you did
nothing to stop them?
Still, you’re a fair guy.
A fair guy who doesn’t really want to carry out this arrest.
You give him one last chance.
One opportunity to own up and return the drinks he stole back to the store.
Instead, he tells you you’re going crazy, that he can’t do that, and that he didn’t
even steal it, anyway.
Ah, how sad.
He’s still in the denial phase.
You tell him you’re calling the police.
So, you dial 911 and tell them matter-of-factly that you’ve just made a citizen’s arrest
of a shoplifter.
The disbelief on your friend’s face is slightly off-putting, so you turn away.
You prepare for the dispatcher taking the call to congratulate you for being such a
model citizen, but instead, they seem underwhelmed and possibly even annoyed.
They ask you to explain exactly what happened, who was involved, what you saw, and the actions
you took to carry out the citizen’s arrest.
When you tell then that no, you didn’t see the theft but you know it happened, you hear
a deep sigh on the other end of the line.
But you brush it off.
Sometimes it’s hard to read people over the phone, right?
Your friend mutters to you that you’re an idiot.
But a known criminal would say that, wouldn’t he?
A few minutes later, the police turn up.
Again, you don’t expect much, just a pat on the back, maybe a small plaque, a statue
in the park, nothing too flashy of course, but the officers don’t even smile at you!
Maybe they feel threatened that a regular citizen with no training can do their job
just as well as them.
It’s understandable.
The police officers ask you the same questions that the dispatcher on the phone did.
It’s weird — they’re barely paying any attention at all to your friend, the thief.
Just as they ask you what evidence you have for your claim, your friend yells out that
he didn’t even steal the drinks.
You look at him in amazement and accuse him of lying.
But you have to admit that, no, you didn’t actually see the crime take place.
Still, it was your word against his.
And he had more incentive to lie — why would anyone believe him over you?
So you weren’t prepared for what would happen next.
The police officers turned around and said they were sorry but they’d have to arrest
you for making an illegitimate citizen’s arrest.
Why?!
What was going on?
When you make a citizen’s arrest, you need to be extremely careful.
Do it falsely or under the wrong circumstances and you open yourself up to civil and criminal
liability.
Basically, you could end up being the one who gets arrested.
So, how can we figure out whether we should carry out a citizen’s arrest?
In reality, there’s no straightforward set of guidelines you can rely on.
In some states, you can only carry out a citizen’s arrest when certain crimes take place or under
certain conditions.
For example, in California, you need to witness the crime yourself to perform a legitimate
citizen’s arrest.
But in some other states, it’s okay to go ahead if you’re not a witness as long as
it’s eventually proven that the person you arrested is guilty.
Having said that, it’s almost always too risky to carry out a citizen’s arrest based
on suspicion alone, even if the law allows it.
The law is also unlikely to cover you if you randomly arrest someone who just so happens
to have committed an offense.
You must have a good reason to suspect the person beforehand, too.
So, if you arrest someone because you think they’re a drug dealer, then it turns out
that you’re wrong but they are a murderer, you could still get into trouble.
And what about using force or even violence to arrest someone who doesn’t want to be
arrested?
That’s tricky too.
Most laws say you can use force if it stops the action — meaning it’s okay to wrestle
someone to the ground if they’re about to beat up an old woman, but not so much if they’re
sitting calmly in a park and not hurting anyone.
Finally, it’s generally okay to carry out a citizen’s arrest if it’s deemed “reasonable”
for the circumstances.
Unfortunately, the definition of “reasonable” is far from clear.
But naturally, the more serious the crime and the more dangerous the criminal appears,
the more reasonable it becomes to take action.
If the criminal seems peaceful, it’s safest to do things the boring way and call the police.
Oh, and under no circumstances should you chase after a criminal who runs away to arrest
them.
The many possible scenarios and variables at hand can make it seem like deciding whether
to carry out a citizen’s arrest is hard.
But really, it’s quite simple.
You should almost never do it unless your motive is protecting other people from harm.
Listen to the advice of Elsa and just “let it go.”
But back to our unfortunate hero...
The police explain to you that, since you didn’t witness the shoplifting yourself
and have no proof your friend is guilty, you had no right to make the citizen’s arrest.
So, you’re under arrest yourself unless it turns out that there’s proof you’re
right about this.
Unbelievable.
You suggest that the police check the CCTV footage at the shop when your friend sighs.
He says he didn’t take the energy drinks himself — someone else stole them and gave
them to him.
You’re speechless.
By trying to do the right thing, you’d just made yourself liable for arrest and fallen
out with your best friend, while the real criminal gets to walk away with no consequences.
It’s just not fair.
Meanwhile, back at the shop, it turned out that the real shoplifter had also been detained
under a citizen’s arrest, carried out by the shopkeeper.
This came under a separate law called shopkeeper’s privilege, which says that shopkeepers can
detain a suspected shoplifter.
That’s right — unlike regular citizens, shopkeepers can detain someone suspected of
shoplifting even if they have no proof and they didn’t witness it themselves.
Of course, they still need some kind of reason to suspect the shoplifting took place.
So, moral of the story.
Unless you’re Batman or a shopkeeper, don’t try to carry out a citizen’s arrest.
And we’re pretty sure even Batman has made some illegal citizen’s arrests in his time.
Maybe it’s time for someone to put a stop to that masked menace once and for all…
Now to clear up some other common misconceptions about crime and the law check out our video
about house arrest or this one about how prison parole actually works.