On Thu, 1 May 2025 13:07:53 -0000 (UTC), Jon Ribbens <
jon+usenet@unequivocal.eu> wrote:
On 2025-05-01, Jethro_uk <jethro_uk@hotmailbin.com> wrote:
Our roads Watsapp group is starting to buzz and some people are chatting
to the local police.
Someone has just stated as fact (obviously) that while residents can make
a citizens arrest, PCSOs cannot.
Now I am suspecting this is bad reporting. However it did set me
wondering if the power of citizens arrest is conditional and can be
abrogated (presumably under contract rather than statute) law ?
Perhaps what they mean is that the policy of the employers of the PCSOs
(the policy authority?) that they should not attempt to make arrests,
e.g. for health and safety reasons. So presumably they have the same
legal right to make a citizen's arrest as anyone else, but they might >jeopardise their jobs if they exercised that right while on duty.
There's also the point that a citizen's arrest can only be used where "it is not reasonably practicable for a constable to make it instead". Given that PCSOs, unlike the rest of us, carry police radios and can call in support
from constables whenever necessary, there's probably an argument that they
can only use the power of citizen's arrest if either they are unable to call for backup or they have called but know it won't get there in time.
It's also worth bearing in mind that even constables will rarely perform an immediate arrest while out on patrol unless they really, really have to. In most cases, they too, will call in backup before making the arrest. So in practice, the PCSO situation is not radically different in most cases.
Mark
--- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05
* Origin: fsxNet Usenet Gateway (21:1/5)