Policy Text
Kern County Sheriff’s Office
Policies and Procedures
TITLE:
PRIVATE PERSON’S ARREST
NO: H-1050
APPROVED:
Donny Youngblood, Sheriff-Coroner
EFFECTIVE:
May 21, 2003
REVIEWED:
10/20/2020
REVISED:
00/00/00
UPDATED:
1/17/2018
H-1050-1
POLICY
It is the policy of the Kern County Sheriff’s Office to carefully and objectively evaluate private
person arrests and, where it is lawful to do so, accept and properly process the person arrested.
DIRECTIVE #1
Officers presented with a situation in which someone wishes to make a private person arrest
should be aware of the following provisions of the law:
Penal Code § 837 provides in part that:
A private person may arrest another for a public offense committed or attempted in
his/her presence.
However, notwithstanding this provision of state law, officers must be aware that, under federal
interpretations of the Fourth Amendment to the United States Constitution, any action by an
officer in which a person is taken into custod