imported post
Legal explanations.com
(v) Arrest is the action by which a person is stopped from his normal activities by virtue of a legal authority or sanction, either by detaining him or by stopping his external accesses. By an arrest, a person is deprived of his liberty. So the law contain many provisions like requirement of a warrant, adherence of Miranda rights, arraignment within the statutory limit etc.
dictionary.reference.com
verb (used with object) 1. to seize (a person) by legal authority or warrant; take into custody: The police arrested the burglar. noun 5. the taking of a person into legal custody, as by officers of the law. 6. any seizure or taking by force. 7. an act of stopping or the state of being stopped: the arrest of tooth decay.
Perhaps the best, they go quite deeply into the matter.
thefreedictionary.com
A seizure or forcible restraint; an exercise of the power to deprive a person of his or her liberty; the taking or keeping of a person in custody by legal authority, especially, in response to a criminal charge.
...
An arrest may occur (1) by the touching or putting hands on the arrestee; (2) by any act that indicates an intention to take the arrestee into custody and that subjects the arrestee to the actual control and will of the person making the arrest; or (3) by the consent of the person to be arrested. There is no arrest where there is no restraint, and the restraint must be under real or pretended legal authority. However, the detention of a person need not be accompanied by formal words of arrest or a station house booking to constitute an arrest.
BusinessDictionary.com
To detain a
person and keep him or her in
custody by
lawful authority. Arrest may be made with an
arrest warrant or without one (called '
summary arrest') in case of an
arrestable offense, or where it is authorized by a
statute.
YourDictionary.com
transitive verb
- to stop or check the motion, course, or spread of
- to seize or take into custody by authority of the law
- to catch and keep (one's attention, sight, etc.)
noun
- an arresting or being arrested; esp., a taking or being taken into custody by authority of the law
- a thing for checking motion
LEOTraining.com
[excerpted by me]
Q -- Handcuffing People During Frisks An officer stops a vehicle with multiple occupants and develops reasonable suspicion to search for weapons (let’s assume he does have reasonable suspicion). Can an officer handcuff the occupants of a vehicle on reasonable suspicion alone only to search for weapons?
I guess the case doesn't necessarily have to deal with passengers of automobiles. But if an officer fears someone is armed, can he/she handcuff the person to simply search for weapons or have the courts ruled that once a person is handcuffed they are in custody. I remember you lectured about this very topic but I don’t recall your opinion.
Answer
First off -- your safety is most important. If you feel that you
must handcuff people present to go home at night, then do it.
BUT -- you must remember that handcuffing looks like "custody" or "arrest" to a court / judge and that requires probable cause -- so let me give you some legal advice.
1. Prior to handcuffing, tell the people they are not under arrest or in custody.
2. As soon as you have frisked, unhandcuff the people, if possible.
3. If you discover important evidence as a result of this procedure YOU must convince the court of the unusual circumstances that made it necessary to handcuff. This is not easy in lots of courts, so be prepared to tell the story to make the judge feel as if he / she were there.
And be prepared to explain that whenever you have found it necessary to do this, you ALWAYS and immediately unhandcuff the people when you determine that nobody has a weapon that can hurt you.
There are three levels (tiers) of interaction with the police as defined by the U.S. Supreme Court, we all know what they are.
Tier 1 ... Voluntary Interaction
Tier 2 ... Detention
Tier 3 ... Arrest.
Ask yourself what tier of interaction you are having when you are are involuntarily placed into restraints and your freedom to go about your normal activities is halted until such time as you are released.