citizen arrest ..helping our fellow citizens
know your local/state/community laws
"A private person may arrest an offender if the offense is committed in his presence or within his immediate knowledge. If the offense is a felony and the offender is escaping or attempting to escape, a private person may arrest him upon reasonable and probable grounds of suspicion."
Different laws whether in state codes, precedents set by state court rulings or some other common legal understanding sometimes mention use of force, like in New York state, where non-deadly use of force is specifically allowed. Other citizen's arrest laws specify whether the law can be used for felony or misdemeanor crimes. Some also specify whether someone had to witness the crime actually being committed in order to pursue an arrest.
"There's a lot of nuance, and these cases are very facts-specific," Moore says. For instance, does "immediate knowledge" mean someone has to see a crime being committed? Moore says if he were trying a case in Georgia, he would want to know details of what led to the arrest. "You would need to know: How are (the arresters) claiming that they had immediate knowledge of a felony being committed? Did they see something, hear something?"