WARNING STATEMENTS AND ARREST: A PRIMER
Every police officer channels some of the state’s most coercive powers. One of these powers is the power of arrest. With little warning, you can be whisked out of your home, away from your loved ones, to a cold and crowded holding cell, to await the judgment of a magistrate. Because arrest is so intrusive, it is subject to important safeguards. Now is as good a time as any to remember them, especially given recent headlines.
The basics: a police officer may arrest you only in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act and the Constitution, and only in two ways: with a warrant, or without a warrant.
Only a magistrate or a judge may issue a warrant of arrest, and only after application by a prosecutor. One may only be issued if there is a reasonable suspicion that you have committed a crime. A police officer may then arrest you on the strength of the warrant.
A police officer may also arrest you without a warrant. Because judicial oversight is absent, the power may only be exercised in certain circumstances: most notably, if the police officer reasonably suspects that you have committed a serious crime, or if you commit any crime in the police officer’s presence.
At first blush, these powers seem broad. For example, a warrant may be issued for your arrest for any crime, no matter how trivial. But these powers are limited in important ways.