Have you ever had to do citizen arrest ?

[Lardlizard]

Before

No

Does anyone even know what constitutes a citizen's arrest?
Like, just sitting on a dodgy looking bloke?

Since it amounts to nothing more than a polite request that the alleged ne'er do well not leave the vicinity, I'd love to witness someone try to enact one, if only to see the look on their face when the menace to society laughs in their face and walks away.

What @XDownwiththissortofthingX said - you cannot physically restrain someone without risking being charged with assault yourself. 'Citizen's Arrest' is a misnomer - there is no such thing!

Yep several times while working in security. You have be very confident in your knowledge and application of the law, particularly around use of force (which any person can use). It was usually for serious offences like assault, theft or possession of drugs or weapons. Its not something I enjoyed doing as it can easily go wrong, and I wouldn't recommend you do it if you weren't confident. I mainly did it if I was at a venue where I knew the Police were either on site already (such as a festival) or nearby (town centre for example).

No, but I have a story about one.

DH had taken DS to A&E with a rugby injury. When they came out they were just in time to see a car coming very fast the wrong way down the road and crash into our car, which was parked in a parking space on the road outside the hospital.

The driver continued on to a nearby roundabout where he crashed again. He tried to run off, but two witnesses grabbed him and held him down until the police came.

The bastard turned out to be drunk and uninsured. Thankfully we have fully comprehensive insurance.

Sec 3 of the criminal law act 1967 allows the use of reasonable force by any person:

Use of force in making arrest,etc.

(1)A person may use such force as is reasonable in the circumstances in the prevention of crime, or in effecting or assisting in the lawful arrest of offenders or suspected offenders or of persons unlawfully at large.

(2)Subsection (1) above shall replace the rules of the common law on the question when force used for a purpose mentioned in the subsection is justified by that purpose.

The power to arrest is in s.24A PACE
www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1984/60/section/24A

Thanks @AuntyPonsonby, I was just off to get that link as well.

I don’t know why I’m thinking about this but, Injusy has a thought why if we were out somewhere and say some perv tried to touch me or heaven forbid one of my children
Say in a pinks place like a shopping center or park

I though to myself how would I react then and there in that moment

Grab hold on them and scream and shout for help
And get someone else to call the police ASAP

Or take a photo of them if there face

All the time you would also be trying to reduce the amount of stress and truma for the child

I just don’t know what the right thing to do would be in this situation

Public place

@Lardlizard if you are not sure what to do, I would not recommend trying to restrain someone, especially if you are alone with children. Definitely take a photo if you could do it safely, and screaming/drawing attention is good if people are around to help.

Delta it would be ok if dh was there as I’d tell him to pin that arsehole
Down
Take their photo, call police and gather as many people around as possible
But he’s usually at work most of the time

In that situation i dont know that i would bother with trying to get a photo, its never crossed my mind when I've done it before.

Ds tried it on me when he was about 6yo and into police programmes and he didn't want to go to bed. He read me my rights as I carried him upstairs. Will that do?
🤣

I’d only try and get a photo Incase he got away

And you would be surprised (maybe) at the amount of people that wouldnt stop to help. Nowadays they would be likely to be filming, but not getting involved.

@Witchend thats brilliant 😂

Delta I guess a lot of the public are scared of knives
I guess if you shouted stop that man
Not that many would help

Although perhaps if you shouted stop that child abuser maybe they might

Witchend
🤣

@Lardlizard they might, but shouting "stop that child abuser" might result in someone using more force than is legally necessary and causing more grief. I am deliberately not commenting on the moral issue as that it a separate point.

Ok thanks Delta, I do appreciate your views on This

I remember something about shouting "fire" is more effective than "help"

Older I’ve read that too if your are getting attacked

But then I wonder if you start shouting fire does that just cause confusion rather than get you help ?

Id be more inclined to shout help. Fire could confuse people. If you are out in a public place, and you shout fire, people will start looking around for a fire or even run off. If you shout help people should at least look at you if they dont help.