Citizen's Arrest or Police Arrest? Defining the Scope of Alaska's Delegated Citizen's Arrest Doctrine

Summary

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When a citizen witnesses the commission of a misdemeanor, Alaska law allows that citizen to arrest the offender on the spot. Alaska law does not clearly define how much assistance police may give before the citizen's arrest becomes a warrantless police arrest. The Alaska Court of Appeals in Moxie v. State adopted the "delegated citizen's arrest" doctrine, holding that a citizen making an arrest may "delegate" the task of taking an offender into custody to a police officer who did not witness the misdemeanor. The court expressed agreement with California's delegated citizen's arrest doctrine and endorsed the California courts' reasoning. However, the Moxie decision itself did not expressly define the scope of such delegation, leaving it unclear when a delegated citizen's arrest becomes an illegal warrantless police arrest. This Comment analyzes Moxie and relevant California law, and argues that Alaska should apply California's limits to delegated citizen's arrests. Applying such limits is consistent with the policy behind delegated citizen's arrests and ensures the integrity of Alaska's warrant requirement in such situations.

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Citizen's Arrest or Police Arrest? Defining the Scope of Alaska's Delegated Citizen's Arrest Doctrine

A woman sees a strange man walking out of her garage. She asks who he is and what he is doing there.1 He gives her his name, says he used to live there, and leaves. After he has left, she calls the police and reports what she saw, providing them with the trespasser's name. The police arrive and she signs a "citizen's arrest form." Forty-five minutes after the offense, the police find the trespasser in a store five miles away from the woman's home. The police arrest the suspect without a warrant and take him to jail. Meanwhile, in another part of town, employees of a store witness a customer shoplifting.2 They apprehend him and escort him to the front of the store. He shoves one of the employees and runs off. They call the police and report that he has run to a building across the street. A police officer arrives, chases the suspect through the building, catches him, and takes him back to the store where the employees identify him as the shoplifter. The officer asks the employees to sign a citizen arrest form, then takes him to jail.

Although both cases were treated as citizen's arrests, certain features distinguish the two arrests. In the arrest of the trespasser, a great deal of time passed between the commission of the crime and the eventual arrest. The witnessing citizen did not participate in the arrest beyond reporting the crime. In the arrest of the shoplifter, by contrast, the citizen witnesses were actively involved in the arrest, having attempted to physically restrain the offender. They directed the actions of the police and allowed no unreasonable delay between the crime and the arrest.

This Comment analyzes Al...

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