Are Citizen's Arrests Real? And if so, How the Hell Do They Work?

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Scenario: you're strolling through your neighborhood on a perfect Saturday afternoon. There are people on bikes, children laughing, an ice cream truck going by. It's the kind of day even Norman Rockwell would deem "a bit much." But then you spot it: a shifty guy in your neighbor's first-floor apartment who is definitely not your neighbor, and also definitely taking his TV. You know you should do something. You've also vaguely heard of citizen's arrests. But are they even a thing?

First off, dude, have you even seen The Departed? Of course citizen's arrests are real. But the laws surrounding them are pretty murky, vary by state, and suggest you should think twice before attempting them.

"In the entire 34 years I was on the force, I don’t recall anyone making one," says John DeCarlo, an associate professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice who previously served as the Branford, CT chief of police. "I don’t know if it’s apathy or expectation that we have so many police officers to do that job, but it’s not something we commonly see."

Confusion is likely one reason citizen's arrests are so rare. Some states are pretty clear about the parameters. As Section 837 of the California penal code states, "A private person may arrest another for a public offense committed or attempted in his presence; when the person arrested has committed a felony, although not in his presence; when a felony has been in fact committed, and he has reasonable cause for believing the person arrested to have committed it." Basically, you can arrest another citizen for a misdemeanor (think small-time stuff) if you see it, or a felony (more serious crimes, like counterfeit!) whether you were there or not.

But then you have places like North Carolina, where you can't arrest arrest another citizen, but you can "detain" them for a felony or breach of the peace. So depending on where you are, the rules (or at least the language) are going to oscillate wildly.

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That said, there's at least one more reason citizen's arrests are rare, and it's because they're a legal nightmare. "Police have something called qualified immunity," DeCarlo explains. "So they’re authorized to use force, they're operating within the confines of the law. In most instances, it’s going to be harder for a citizen to justify using force. They're probably going to get sued."

And you might not only get sued for assault. Say you decide to frisk a suspicious citizen while "arresting" them -- because you've already made it this far, right? A cop would have certain freedoms to do so under Terry v. Ohio. But you? You have none of that. You're just a vigilante on the sidewalk, who's suddenly decided he's T.J. Hooker.

On top of all that, you have to step back and consider what you're doing: intervening in a situation where you have little to no authority and (probably) no means to defend yourself, aside from whatever karate kick you picked up from your third-grade dojo visits. The person who's committing a crime might have a weapon or, at the very least, less to lose. "I wanna say I made hundreds of arrests on the job, and it’s not easy," DeCarlo says. "People are going to fight you, they might be intoxicated or high on a substance. That’s why, sometimes, police have to use force. So when a private citizen walks up to you and says, 'You’re under arrest,' how are you going to back that up?"

Obviously, you don't wanna be Kitty Genovese's neighbors, but reporting crime to the police rather than making a citizen's arrest is still usually the better call -- even if you're technically allowed to do so. After all, just look at what happened to Billy Costigan.

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Kristin Hunt is a staff writer for Thrillist, and has legitimately been curious about this since The Departed came out. Follow her to the citizens envelope at @kristin_hunt.