Citizen's arrest

[IndigoSpritz]

Have you, or anyone you know, ever attempted one of these ? I remember Arthur Daley announcing he was going to make a CA in an episode of Minder decades ago. Do they have any legal basis in the UK ? Technically, UK residents are subjects, not citizens.

I do store security so technically I do them all the time as I detain people in a holding cell for shop theft. I'm not police and have no actual powers of arrest but can detain them until the police arrive.

No but I’d love to, in as dramatic a take-down as possible

Big is it true that you can’t actually do anything if someone just says no and walks out when you ask the check their bags?

No, but I started to love Peter Tatchell a little bit after he tried to perform a citizen’s arrest on Robert Mugabe, and other deserving recipients (though he’s let me down a bit lately......humpf)

Depends where you are you can in Scotland

Frazzy, I never need to check their bags. We have a very specific set of rules we need to follow in order to detain someone and it basically means that if I am not 100 percent sure they have the stolen item, know where they have stashed it and have it all on cctv, then I do not perform a stop outside the store.
Occasionally they need a little more help to come back inside but the vast majority come back in with little bother, surprisingly.

You can make a citizens arrest in the UK but the rules are different to the ones for police. I think you can only do it if you see the crime whereas the police can do it suspicion. Or something like that.

There is a power of arrest under s. 24 A of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984:

(1)A person other than a constable may arrest without a warrant—

(a)anyone who is in the act of committing an indictable offence;

(b)anyone whom he has reasonable grounds for suspecting to be committing an indictable offence.

(2)Where an indictable offence has been committed, a person other than a constable may arrest without a warrant—

(a)anyone who is guilty of the offence;

(b)anyone whom he has reasonable grounds for suspecting to be guilty of it.

(3)But the power of summary arrest conferred by subsection (1) or (2) is exercisable only if—

(a)the person making the arrest has reasonable grounds for believing that for any of the reasons mentioned in subsection (4) it is necessary to arrest the person in question; and

(b)it appears to the person making the arrest that it is not reasonably practicable for a constable to make it instead.

(4)The reasons are to prevent the person in question—

(a)causing physical injury to himself or any other person;

(b)suffering physical injury;

(c)causing loss of or damage to property; or

(d)making off before a constable can assume responsibility for him.

(5)This section does not apply in relation to an offence under Part 3 or 3A of the Public Order Act 1986

So for it to be lawful, you have to know that the offence is indictable, have reasonable grounds for believing that one of the reasons listed applies, and for it not to be reasonably practicable for a police officer to make the arrest.
In practice therefore, it's very rare. And basically inadvisable.

Interesting business. I once saw and heard a club doorman eject a person for dealing drugs. The doorman claimed he saw the deal in plain sight. I don't know if he did or not. There was no CA that I remember.

Thankyou AnnDerry. In other words, the citizen making the arrest has to be completely watertight legally.

DH is a doorman and makes "citizens arrests" otherwise known as "sitting on some pissed arsehole who's been fighting whilst waiting for the police to show up"

Many years ago my car was stolen from the hospital car park where I worked and the police said if we drove around we might find it abandoned somewhere. So we went in my brothers car ( I was about 19) and as we drove near to the hospital , we saw it being driven past us the other way down the street so my by brother spun his car round and pulled up behind him ( traffic lights were on red fortunately). My brother calmly went up , opened his door and took his massive bunch of keys ( seemed he had many to break into many different types of car) out of the ignition. Then he pulled him out of the car and held him whilst I rang the police who knew him and promptly arrested him.