Theft

[JohnKelly]

You are on patrol and you are called to attend at a local shopping centre where a 20 year old is being held by Store Security for Shop Lifting of Goods to the value of say $30.

The offender has priors for Theft and he admits to this offence.

Assuming that you would have to proceed by Summons, would you take this offender back to the Station and how long would it take you to process him?

[ukcop2]

My place is terrible. We only have one custody sgt who books new prisoners in. Hence we often have a long delay in the holding cage (it has been 2 hours before).
Once in front of the sgt the circumstances are given, detention authorised and property booked in (about 15 minutes).
Offender elects for a lawyer and we wait for one to turn up (up to an hour, maybe a little longer). If offender is a youth (under 17) he/she needs an appropriate adult to be with him/her. Maybe a parent or social services (another wait).

Once all that has been jacked up and on route, go and get the statements from the aggrieved and sort out the property. (maybe another hour).

Then give legal disclosure to the solicitor and wait 30 minutes while they consult with their "client" (longer of they are milking the legal aid system).

Finally go and interview offender (maybe 5 - 20 minutes).

Wait your turn to charge the offender with the offence. Then complete the file for court (an hour).

Ok so this is done differently in some places but we do the above and hence I DON"T ARREST ANYBODY ANYMORE ha ha :D

Uk

[sheriff3399]

That depends on the offender. They get all arrested and we transport them to our policestation. There they are booked in, we do that ourselves. Than we led the suspect for a inspector who is also an deputy public prosecutor. This will takes 5 minutes. Then we will make an arrestdocument on the computer and the thief goes to investigation. From the time the thief arrives on the policestation they got 6 hours to get done with him/her. If it's a first offender who commit the crime the inspector will summons him/her. If not of they use violence with the crime they can go into custody, three days after the 6 hours.

[Sgt Lobster]

John,

It's pretty much as ukcop2 says. We normally have 2 custody officers and we can probably get a prisoner booked in somewhat quicker, though if it is really busy you can wait hours.

Our Civilian Detention Officers would fingerprint/photograph/DNA profile the suspect and do any post charge drugs testing. Waiting for solicitors/appropriate adults etc is a real pain and slows things right down.

It would be an option not to arrest the suspect but to report him for summons in the store. This though would only be an alternative to arrest if you knew the offender. Sometimes the store will decide not to support the prosecution, which would allow us to sort out the job by detecting it no proceedings.

The setup in Scotland and Northern Ireland is different as they have separate jurisdictions to England & Wales.





Lobster.

[Urban Jedi]

Arrest offender and take to station (including wait for transport) - half an hour

Wait to book prisoner in, deal with property etc - half an hour to three hours

Arrest notes - half an hour

Witness statement - half an hour

waiting for solicitor/interpreter/appropriate adult - an hour to five hours

disclosure to solicitor/offenders legal consultation - half an hour

interview - half an hour

wait for charging sergeant/charge/DNA/photo/prints/drug testing - two hours to four hours

case papers - half an hour to an hour

So for a simple case like this, I would use between six and a half to fifteen hours of duty time.

An absolute nightmare

[Sgt Lobster]

John,

How would you deal with a shoppie in Oz ?


Lobster.

[9-11]

If suspect has valid ID and no warrants
U.S answer:
Respond to scene
Issue Summons (no statement taken, no printing/custody issues).
In Service
20 mins.

[JohnKelly]

Originally posted by Sgt Lobster
John,

How would you deal with a shoppie in Oz ?


Lobster.

Based on my senario - attend at the scene, obtain Statement from complainant, arrest offender, return to Station, process offender through Attendance Register, check for priors, print etc, interview on Tape, release offender on Bail or Remand in Custody - time, hmmm, one hour.

[Sgt Lobster]

John,

Excluding travelling time to the custody office, and assuming there is nobody else waiting it takes about about 15 - 20 minutes to book in a fully compliant prisoner. This would include searching, recording of prisoners property, giving of legal rights, checking previous convictions etc. Assuming they didn't want a solicitor and they are an adult offender and another officer has got the statement, you can get an interview room, a tape recorded interview would take about 10 minutes assuming the job is straight forward.

It would then take about 15 - 20 minutes to livescan the prisoner, take a photograph and if not in the system DNA profile them and obtain descriptives.

We are computerised so charge preparation would take about 5 minutes. You would then need the custody officer to accept the charge and make a bail decision 5 - 10 minutes. Post charge they would then be tested from heroin & cocaine/crack 10 - 20 minutes. The prisoner would then get their property back and be released. Can be quicker we don't interview for all offences, we only drug test for aquisitive/drug offences, sometimes we don't log prisoners property.

So for our shoppie best case scenario, from being booked in to charge and bail/remand about 90 minutes. You would the have to prepare a file for court about another hour. Therefore very best scenario from start to finish about 3 hours. In our setup our Civilain Detention Officers - CDOs search prisoners, fingerprint, photograph and were appropriate drugs test them. So it is often possible to get the officer back on the street in under 3 hours because some of the jobs they would have to do at smaller nicks are done by custody staff.

If you throw in long travelling time to custody offices, lengthy queues to get your prisoner booked in, waits for solicitors, juvenile offenders, drink & drugs, injured prisoners etc etc an arrest can sometimes take your entire shift and longer even for straight forward cases.





Lobster.

[PeteBroccolo]

Originally posted by JohnKelly
You are on patrol and you are called to attend at a local shopping centre where a 20 year old is being held by Store Security for Shop Lifting of Goods to the value of say $30.

The offender has priors for Theft and he admits to this offence.

Assuming that you would have to proceed by Summons, would you take this offender back to the Station and how long would it take you to process him?

I would arrest him, advise him of his rights to counsel and warn him against self-incrimination, search and cuff him and put him in my car. I have a MWS in the car and would check him on CPIC and PIRS (RCMP National report filing system) and if there are no warrants out for him nor any other members are wanting to interview him, I would be able to release him on a Promise to Appear, which he would sign.

I would have to go back and either pick up a signed report from the store or sit down with the staff that witnessed the theft and obtain a statement, either in writing or on tape. Probably take a picture of the stolen item, which the store would put back out for sale.

Time: 1 hour or so. That is, if I ever have to go back to General Duties!

[Urban Jedi]

If you throw in long travelling time to custody offices, lengthy queues to get your prisoner booked in, waits for solicitors, juvenile offenders, drink & drugs, injured prisoners etc etc an arrest can sometimes take your entire shift and longer even for straight forward cases.


Yup. Thats probably every day.

[Sig220Man]

Here in Sunny California, since this subject is an adult, and the $30 value of the stolen item makes this a misdemeanor crime (absent other circumstances), the store security agent would have to place the suspect under private persons arrest.

Until January 1 of this year, a California peace officer MUST accept ANY private person arrest. We are no longer required to, but if something happens because the person was NOT arrested, I would imagine we would accept at least some liability. By accepting the arrest, the officer is still not held liable for any false arrest made by the private party, as has always been the case. So it's still in my best interest to accept the arrest in all but the most egregious of false arrest cases.

So, in this case I would ask the store security agent for the circumstances leading up to the arrest, and a review of his report, if any. After reviewing the report, and subsequent questioning of the security agent (to fill in any gaps in the events or questions about circumstances), I would accept the arrest. From there I can take one of two different routes:

1. As long as I don't have anything that would indicate a felony was committed, and the person does not have any outstanding warrants, is not on probation/parole, and I can reasonably establish his identity, California law requires me to release him on a citation. As an additional precaution I have the person place his thumbprint on the back of the citation (using a portable inkpad that I carry with me at all times) to prevent the person from claiming that his ID was stolen and that he was never at that store.

2. If any of the above apply, I have to take the person into custody, transport him to our jail, and book him there. Fingerprinting, photographing, etc. are handled by the jailers.

In contrast to other members' posts here, I am NOT required to read the subject his rights unless:

1. The person is in custody AND is being interrogated about his involvement in the crime; OR

2. The person arrested is a juvenile (California law)

On another thread, a member mentioned California Penal Code section 666, which states that upon conviction for petty theft, an arrestee with prior theft convictions MAY have that conviction upgraded to a felony. However, this is handled at the court level, not at the officer level.

[Vtfuzz]

Here in VT if a person has one conviction for Retail Theft, any further arrests/convictions are considered FELONIES no matter what the monetary value.

With that in mind, we arrest all felonies and book them. Then a call to a court offical would determine whether they are lodged in jail or not.