Civillian Powers of Arrest
In this post, we're going to try something a bit different. Here's an assignment, as I write it. The final version shall be edited to take out the ramblingness.
Be aware that everything contained within this post is completely and utterly my own opinion. I'm a student, not yet a practitioner.
Civilian Powers of Arrest Quiz
Each of the following scenarios describe a situation in which an arrest by a civilian may - or may not - be made. It is strongly suggested that you follow these steps:
• Define the offence
• Look it up in the Criminal Code and determine its classification, remembering that dual procedure offences are considered indictable for arrest purposes.
• Based on the criteria in Sec 494, determine if you could arrest or not.
Well, I'll start this off by giving a transcription of s494, C.C., itself.
-This also makes it simpler to copy and paste things, of course.
--No, this part won't be appearing in the finished version.
ARREST WITHOUT WARRANT BY ANY PERSON/Arrest by owner, etc. of property/Delivery to peace officer.
(1) any one may arrest without warrant
(a) a person whom he finds committing an indictable offence; or
(b) a person who, on reasonable grounds, he believes
(i) has committed a criminal offence, and
(ii) is escaping from and freshly pursued by persons who have lawful authority to arrest that person.
(2) Any one who is
(a) the owner or a person in lawful possession of property, or
(b) a person authorized by the owner or by a person in lawful possession of property,
may arrest without warrant a person whom he finds committing a criminal offence on or in relation to that property.
(3) Any one other than a peace officer who arrests a person without warrant shall forthwith deliver the person to a peace officer
And because it's me... let's see about explanations here.
This is what I noted last time about it:
Note that subsection (1)(a) only applies to indictable offences, and not summary conviction offences. This is actually an alarmingly important difference - you can arrest for theft, burglary, assault, all manner of things. But you don't get to arrest for, say, littering.
Things from right now:
'Reasonable Grounds' is something that isn't actually defined, which does make some things about this somewhat annoying. But the best way to explain it is as "it's exactly what it sounds like it is". N.B.: The same can be said of 'Finds Committing'.
Criminal Offence means both Indictable and Summary Conviction.
For something to apply under (2)(b), all a person with the appropriate legal possession/ownership of any form of property, all that would need to be said would be "Stop, thief!"
Bearing all this in mind, let us continue on to question one:
A security guard is chasing a teenager through a mall yelling: “Stop him, he’s a shoplifter.” Does a civilian in the immediate area have authority to arrest?
Shoplifting falls under 'theft' under s322(1)(a):
Everyone commits theft who fraudulently and without colour of right takes, or fraudulently and without colour of right converts to his use or to the use of another person, anything whether animate or inanimate, with intent,
(a) to deprive, temporarily or absolutely, the owner of it, or a person who has a special property or interest, of the thing or of his property or interest in it.
Thus we go to s334(b):
Except where otherwise provided by law, ever one who commits theft
(b) is guilty
(i) of an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a tern not exceeding two years, or
(ii) of an offence punishable on summary conviction, where the value of what is stolen does not exceed five thousand dollars.
The offence is dual procedure (hybrid), which for the purposes of arrest counts as indictable.
s494(1)(b), and s494(2)(b), C.C. are in this case the relevant sections. (1)(b) as the shoplifter is being pursued by a security guard, who has announced that he is a thief, and thus this gives you the appropriate Reasonable Grounds. (2)(b) you have been authorised to stop the shoplifter, as the security guard has yelled that you should stop him.
Yes, you may arrest.
A security guard is chasing a teenager through a mall yelling: “Stop him, he just exposed himself.” Does a civilian in the immediate area have authority to arrest?
INDECENT ACTS/Exposure
s173
(1) Every one who wilfully does an indecent act
(a) in a public place in the presence of one or more persons, or
(b) in any place, with intent thereby to insult or offend any persons
is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
(2) Every person who, in any place, for a sexual purpose, exposes his or her genital organs to a person who is under the age of fourteen years is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
s494(1)(b) would be the appropriate section, as the teenager is currently being pursued by a security guard who has yelled for aid in stopping him. This provides all of the reasonable grounds, the criminal offence, and the fresh pursuit.
Yes, you may arrest.
A civilian is driving home from work and spots a young man on the sidewalk who, on the previous evening, had been standing on the civilian’s front lawn masturbating. Can the civilian arrest?
The young man is not currently committing the offence, the young man is not currently pursued by people who have the lawful authority to arrest, and while the civilian is the owner or the person in lawful possession of the property (the front lawn), this is not a case of 'finds committing' - the incident occurred the previous evening. The applicable offence committed the previous evening has no bearing on the current situation.
You may not arrest.
You are driving home from school and come up behind a pickup truck that is weaving all over the road. At an intersection, the truck stops, the driver gets out, staggers over to the shoulder of the road and urinates in the ditch. He has a partially full beer bottle in one hand and you see him drinking from it. Could you arrest him?
There is more than one possible section at play here. For the purposes of simplicity, we'll stick with s253 - although a strong case could be made for s249 (dangerous operation of motor vehicles, vessels and aircraft), s253 is the more applicable of the two:
OPERATING WHILE IMPAIRED
s253 Every one commits an offence who operates a motor vehicle or vessel or operates or assists in the operation of an aircraft or of railway equipment, whether it is in motion or not,
(a) while the person's ability to operate the vehicle, vessel, aircraft or railway equipment is impaired by alcohol or a drug; or
(b) having consumed alcohol in such a quantity that the concentration in the person's blood exceeds eighty milligrams of alcohol in one hundred millilitres of blood.
s255
(1) Every one who commits an offence under sections 253 or 254 is guilty of an indictable offence or an offence punishable on summary conviction...
---the rest is irrelevant. The offence is dual procedure (hybrid), which for the purposes of arrest counts as indictable.
Apply s494(1)(a): Any one may arrest without warrant a person whom he finds committing an indictable offence
Yes, you may arrest.
You are walking along a sidewalk and you see a man knocking at a door. A woman opens the door and you see the man showing her something in his hand; it looks like a wallet. You hear him say, “Yes madam, I'm Detective Slabotnik with the Ottawa Police, can I talk to you for a minute?” You know the real Officer Slabotnik, this guy is an impostor. Can you arrest him?
s130
Every one who
(a) falsely represents himself to be a peace officer or a public officer, or
(b) not being a peace officer or public officer, uses a badge or article of uniform or equipment in a manner that is likely to cause persons to believe that he is a peace officer or a public officer, as the case may be,
is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
This offence is not indictable, the person is not known to be escaping from and freshly pursued by persons who have lawful authority to arrest that person. You are not the owner or a person in lawful possession of the property, not are you a person authorised by the owner or by a person in lawful possession of that property.
As a civilian, you may not arrest (note: This in no way prevents you from reporting the incident).
You are in a drug store and you notice a woman take a bottle of perfume from the shelf and put it in her pocket. She then strolls out of the store. Can you arrest her?
s322(1)(a):
Everyone commits theft who fraudulently and without colour of right takes, or fraudulently and without colour of right converts to his use or to the use of another person, anything whether animate or inanimate, with intent,
(a) to deprive, temporarily or absolutely, the owner of it, or a person who has a special property or interest, of the thing or of his property or interest in it.
s334(b):
Except where otherwise provided by law, ever one who commits theft
(b) is guilty
(i) of an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a tern not exceeding two years, or
(ii) of an offence punishable on summary conviction, where the value of what is stolen does not exceed five thousand dollars.
The offence is dual procedure (hybrid) - for the purposes of arrest, this offence is indictable.
Application of s494(1)(a): Any one may arrest without warrant a person whom he finds committing an indictable offence
Yes, you may arrest.
You are taking an evening stroll through the business section of town. You see a young man toss a stone through a plate-glass window on the front of a shoe store. The alarm starts ringing and the man starts running towards you. Can you make an arrest?
MISCHIEF
s430
(1) Every one commits mischief who wilfully
(a) destroys or damages property;
(b) renders property dangerous, useless, inoperative or ineffective;
...
(3) Every one who commits mischief in relation to property that is a testamentary instrument or the value of which exceeds five thousand dollars
(a) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years; or
(b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction
The offence is dual procedure (hybrid), and therefore is arrestable as indictable.
s494(1)(a): Any one may arrest without warrant a person whom he finds committing an indictable offence
Yes, you may arrest.
You were in court as a witness on the day that Billy Kaputnik was convicted of Impaired Driving. You heard the Judge tell him that he could not drive a motor vehicle anywhere in Canada for a two-year period. One week later you see him driving a lawn tractor in the Wal*Mart parking lot; this is private property. Could you arrest Billy?
MANDATORY ORDER OF PROHIBITION
s259
(4) Every one who operates a motor vehicle, vessel or aircraft or any railway equipment in Canada while disqualified from doing so
(a) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years; or
(b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
(5) For the purposes of this section, "disqualification" means
(a) a prohibition from operating a motor vehicle, vessel or aircraft or any railway equipment ordered pursuant to any of subsections (1), (2), and (3.1) to (3.4);
s2
"motor vehicle" means a vehicle that is drawn, propelled or driven by any means other than muscular power, but does not include railway equipment;
The judge prohibited Mr. Kaputnik from driving a motor vehicle anywhere within Canada. The Tractor falls under the definition of 'motor vehicle', and a Wal*Mart parking lot is still within Canada, notwithstanding being private property.
The offence is dual procedure (hybrid) - arrestable as indictable.
Yes, you may arrest.
Okay, done now. Now onto this presentation thing. And then that notebook (oh, Gods, the notebook...).
Luck?
Be aware that everything contained within this post is completely and utterly my own opinion. I'm a student, not yet a practitioner.
Civilian Powers of Arrest Quiz
Each of the following scenarios describe a situation in which an arrest by a civilian may - or may not - be made. It is strongly suggested that you follow these steps:
• Define the offence
• Look it up in the Criminal Code and determine its classification, remembering that dual procedure offences are considered indictable for arrest purposes.
• Based on the criteria in Sec 494, determine if you could arrest or not.
Well, I'll start this off by giving a transcription of s494, C.C., itself.
-This also makes it simpler to copy and paste things, of course.
--No, this part won't be appearing in the finished version.
ARREST WITHOUT WARRANT BY ANY PERSON/Arrest by owner, etc. of property/Delivery to peace officer.
(1) any one may arrest without warrant
(a) a person whom he finds committing an indictable offence; or
(b) a person who, on reasonable grounds, he believes
(i) has committed a criminal offence, and
(ii) is escaping from and freshly pursued by persons who have lawful authority to arrest that person.
(2) Any one who is
(a) the owner or a person in lawful possession of property, or
(b) a person authorized by the owner or by a person in lawful possession of property,
may arrest without warrant a person whom he finds committing a criminal offence on or in relation to that property.
(3) Any one other than a peace officer who arrests a person without warrant shall forthwith deliver the person to a peace officer
And because it's me... let's see about explanations here.
This is what I noted last time about it:
Note that subsection (1)(a) only applies to indictable offences, and not summary conviction offences. This is actually an alarmingly important difference - you can arrest for theft, burglary, assault, all manner of things. But you don't get to arrest for, say, littering.
Things from right now:
'Reasonable Grounds' is something that isn't actually defined, which does make some things about this somewhat annoying. But the best way to explain it is as "it's exactly what it sounds like it is". N.B.: The same can be said of 'Finds Committing'.
Criminal Offence means both Indictable and Summary Conviction.
For something to apply under (2)(b), all a person with the appropriate legal possession/ownership of any form of property, all that would need to be said would be "Stop, thief!"
Bearing all this in mind, let us continue on to question one:
A security guard is chasing a teenager through a mall yelling: “Stop him, he’s a shoplifter.” Does a civilian in the immediate area have authority to arrest?
Shoplifting falls under 'theft' under s322(1)(a):
Everyone commits theft who fraudulently and without colour of right takes, or fraudulently and without colour of right converts to his use or to the use of another person, anything whether animate or inanimate, with intent,
(a) to deprive, temporarily or absolutely, the owner of it, or a person who has a special property or interest, of the thing or of his property or interest in it.
Thus we go to s334(b):
Except where otherwise provided by law, ever one who commits theft
(b) is guilty
(i) of an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a tern not exceeding two years, or
(ii) of an offence punishable on summary conviction, where the value of what is stolen does not exceed five thousand dollars.
The offence is dual procedure (hybrid), which for the purposes of arrest counts as indictable.
s494(1)(b), and s494(2)(b), C.C. are in this case the relevant sections. (1)(b) as the shoplifter is being pursued by a security guard, who has announced that he is a thief, and thus this gives you the appropriate Reasonable Grounds. (2)(b) you have been authorised to stop the shoplifter, as the security guard has yelled that you should stop him.
Yes, you may arrest.
A security guard is chasing a teenager through a mall yelling: “Stop him, he just exposed himself.” Does a civilian in the immediate area have authority to arrest?
INDECENT ACTS/Exposure
s173
(1) Every one who wilfully does an indecent act
(a) in a public place in the presence of one or more persons, or
(b) in any place, with intent thereby to insult or offend any persons
is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
(2) Every person who, in any place, for a sexual purpose, exposes his or her genital organs to a person who is under the age of fourteen years is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
s494(1)(b) would be the appropriate section, as the teenager is currently being pursued by a security guard who has yelled for aid in stopping him. This provides all of the reasonable grounds, the criminal offence, and the fresh pursuit.
Yes, you may arrest.
A civilian is driving home from work and spots a young man on the sidewalk who, on the previous evening, had been standing on the civilian’s front lawn masturbating. Can the civilian arrest?
The young man is not currently committing the offence, the young man is not currently pursued by people who have the lawful authority to arrest, and while the civilian is the owner or the person in lawful possession of the property (the front lawn), this is not a case of 'finds committing' - the incident occurred the previous evening. The applicable offence committed the previous evening has no bearing on the current situation.
You may not arrest.
You are driving home from school and come up behind a pickup truck that is weaving all over the road. At an intersection, the truck stops, the driver gets out, staggers over to the shoulder of the road and urinates in the ditch. He has a partially full beer bottle in one hand and you see him drinking from it. Could you arrest him?
There is more than one possible section at play here. For the purposes of simplicity, we'll stick with s253 - although a strong case could be made for s249 (dangerous operation of motor vehicles, vessels and aircraft), s253 is the more applicable of the two:
OPERATING WHILE IMPAIRED
s253 Every one commits an offence who operates a motor vehicle or vessel or operates or assists in the operation of an aircraft or of railway equipment, whether it is in motion or not,
(a) while the person's ability to operate the vehicle, vessel, aircraft or railway equipment is impaired by alcohol or a drug; or
(b) having consumed alcohol in such a quantity that the concentration in the person's blood exceeds eighty milligrams of alcohol in one hundred millilitres of blood.
s255
(1) Every one who commits an offence under sections 253 or 254 is guilty of an indictable offence or an offence punishable on summary conviction...
---the rest is irrelevant. The offence is dual procedure (hybrid), which for the purposes of arrest counts as indictable.
Apply s494(1)(a): Any one may arrest without warrant a person whom he finds committing an indictable offence
Yes, you may arrest.
You are walking along a sidewalk and you see a man knocking at a door. A woman opens the door and you see the man showing her something in his hand; it looks like a wallet. You hear him say, “Yes madam, I'm Detective Slabotnik with the Ottawa Police, can I talk to you for a minute?” You know the real Officer Slabotnik, this guy is an impostor. Can you arrest him?
s130
Every one who
(a) falsely represents himself to be a peace officer or a public officer, or
(b) not being a peace officer or public officer, uses a badge or article of uniform or equipment in a manner that is likely to cause persons to believe that he is a peace officer or a public officer, as the case may be,
is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
This offence is not indictable, the person is not known to be escaping from and freshly pursued by persons who have lawful authority to arrest that person. You are not the owner or a person in lawful possession of the property, not are you a person authorised by the owner or by a person in lawful possession of that property.
As a civilian, you may not arrest (note: This in no way prevents you from reporting the incident).
You are in a drug store and you notice a woman take a bottle of perfume from the shelf and put it in her pocket. She then strolls out of the store. Can you arrest her?
s322(1)(a):
Everyone commits theft who fraudulently and without colour of right takes, or fraudulently and without colour of right converts to his use or to the use of another person, anything whether animate or inanimate, with intent,
(a) to deprive, temporarily or absolutely, the owner of it, or a person who has a special property or interest, of the thing or of his property or interest in it.
s334(b):
Except where otherwise provided by law, ever one who commits theft
(b) is guilty
(i) of an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for a tern not exceeding two years, or
(ii) of an offence punishable on summary conviction, where the value of what is stolen does not exceed five thousand dollars.
The offence is dual procedure (hybrid) - for the purposes of arrest, this offence is indictable.
Application of s494(1)(a): Any one may arrest without warrant a person whom he finds committing an indictable offence
Yes, you may arrest.
You are taking an evening stroll through the business section of town. You see a young man toss a stone through a plate-glass window on the front of a shoe store. The alarm starts ringing and the man starts running towards you. Can you make an arrest?
MISCHIEF
s430
(1) Every one commits mischief who wilfully
(a) destroys or damages property;
(b) renders property dangerous, useless, inoperative or ineffective;
...
(3) Every one who commits mischief in relation to property that is a testamentary instrument or the value of which exceeds five thousand dollars
(a) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding ten years; or
(b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction
The offence is dual procedure (hybrid), and therefore is arrestable as indictable.
s494(1)(a): Any one may arrest without warrant a person whom he finds committing an indictable offence
Yes, you may arrest.
You were in court as a witness on the day that Billy Kaputnik was convicted of Impaired Driving. You heard the Judge tell him that he could not drive a motor vehicle anywhere in Canada for a two-year period. One week later you see him driving a lawn tractor in the Wal*Mart parking lot; this is private property. Could you arrest Billy?
MANDATORY ORDER OF PROHIBITION
s259
(4) Every one who operates a motor vehicle, vessel or aircraft or any railway equipment in Canada while disqualified from doing so
(a) is guilty of an indictable offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding five years; or
(b) is guilty of an offence punishable on summary conviction.
(5) For the purposes of this section, "disqualification" means
(a) a prohibition from operating a motor vehicle, vessel or aircraft or any railway equipment ordered pursuant to any of subsections (1), (2), and (3.1) to (3.4);
s2
"motor vehicle" means a vehicle that is drawn, propelled or driven by any means other than muscular power, but does not include railway equipment;
The judge prohibited Mr. Kaputnik from driving a motor vehicle anywhere within Canada. The Tractor falls under the definition of 'motor vehicle', and a Wal*Mart parking lot is still within Canada, notwithstanding being private property.
The offence is dual procedure (hybrid) - arrestable as indictable.
Yes, you may arrest.
Okay, done now. Now onto this presentation thing. And then that notebook (oh, Gods, the notebook...).
Luck?