Citizens Arrest?

[Jeff White]

Here in the Peoples Democratic Republic of Illinois a private citizen has almost the same authority as a Peace Officer. But, a private citizen has no protection from civil actions if he/she chooses to use any arrest powers.

A citizen can use the same force in order to effect an arrest as a peace officer. A citizen cannot make an arrest on second hand information. If you came home from work and your neighbor came up and said he saw joe the dirtbag from down the street break into your garage, you couldn't go grab joe the dirt bag and drag him to the jail. However your neighbor who witnessed it could have.

If your neighbor had grabbed joe the dirt bag and dragged him off to the jail and joe the dirt bag decided to sue him for false arrest and excessive force, your neighbor would have had to bear the cost of his defense out of his own pocket. A peace officer would have his costs borne by the state.

Another quirk in Illinois law is that many elected and appointed local governmental positions meet the definition of being peace officers.

Jeff

 

[Carlos Cabeza]

The E.H. & S. manager at my facility made a citizens arrest a few weeks ago. There were several cars broken into over several weeks at his apt. community. We needed to come to work at 4am. one day for an environmental cleanup job. When he went to his truck he noticed an individual crouching behind a vehicle. When he went to ask *** ! the punk tried to stab him in the chest with a screwdriver and took off running. After a short foot chase and an awesome sooner linebacker style tackle the dude was down and in a wrist hold. A few free hand punches to the face and midriff the perp decided he wanted his mommy. And to "please call the cops" this is the part I liked the most ! Another witness phoned the police who arrived shortly and found several car stereos, tools and other stuff that was readily identified by other residents. He was contacted by the local media for an interview but declined due to his modest nature. All I could say was good job brother !

And yes he's CCW too. Did not need to produce it though.

 

[Cosmoline]

Why would you want to?

No LEO's want citizens making arrests. Furthermore, the concept of an arrest means they're running away. I can only think of a very few situations where you'd want to stop a bad guy who's running away. Just let him run! If he's running, that means you won the encounter or you lost it, but in any event it's over. If you lost, you're in no position to arrest him, and if you won (by throwing down, most likely), you should just leave it at that and go on with your day.

My philosophy in a nutshell--kill them, or leave them alone. Any other choice involves touching them, and that's never a good idea.

 

[Coronach]

In Ohio, any citizen may perform a citizen's arrest for a felony, detain the individual and summon a Peace Officer, who will then effect an arrest.

Shopkeepers or their agent (read: loss prevention) may detain an individual using "reasonable force" until a Peace Officer arrives, if that individual is suspected of having committed a theft offense in their business.

One of my favorite scenarios is the shoplifter who decides to run and gets caught, thumped, and skull-dragged back into the loss-prevention office and by the time I arrive is loudly screaming that he is gonna press charges for assault on each and every LP in the store who has disrespected him by daring to lay hands on him.

Uhm...fine. You can try.

Of course, the caveat...you better be right...otherwise you can be charged with assault. And sued. Etc.

Mike