(via the Strib) Last August, after falling prey to a game of ding-dong ditch and hearing reports of teens breaking into vehicles in a Brooklyn Park neighborhood, off-duty Minneapolis police officer Tony Adams picked up two boys (12 and 13 years old), ordered them into his car, drove them to his home, sat them on the curb, and cuffed them in what he referred to as a citizen’s arrest. Now, after complaints from one of the boy’s disgruntled parents, who had called 911 and were frantically searching for their son, Adams is being charged with “felony false imprisonment and gross misdemeanor interfering with a 911 call.”
Was Adams just doing what any cop would do? Any citizen for that matter?
According to assistant Wright County attorney Lee Martie, “The issue was if he had the authority to make a citizen’s arrest,” and the following conditions must be met:
1. The crime must be committed in the presence of the person making the arrest (which this was not). [According to several websites, there are actually several conditions under which a citizen's arrest can be made, not all of which include the arresting party being witness to the crime, but this varies from state to state, and the City of Minneapolis includes only this one scenario.]
2. The arresting party must identify himself and tell the person(s) the reason for the arrest (which he did only after picking them up, transporting them, sitting them down, and cuffing them).
3. The arresting party must then take the person(s) to a law enforcement agency. [But what if you ARE law enforcement? What then? And why were these kids never taken to the station?]
Latest comment — lisa: Leave it to the MPD to once again provide cheap entertainment. It never ends. Although the St. Paul cop who feed the poptarts to the gorilla ranks...