What makes an arrest valid

An arrest is using legal authority to deprive a person of his or her freedom of movement. An arrest is generally made with an arrest warrant. An arrest may be made without a warrant if probable cause and exigent circumstances are presented at the time of the arrest. Probable cause is a reasonable belief of the police officer in the guilt of the suspect, based on the facts and information prior to the arrest. For instance, a warrantless arrest may be legitimate in situations where the police officer has a reasonable belief that the suspect has either committed a crime or is about to commit a crime.

These warnings apprise an arrestee of the right to obtain counsel and the right to remain silent. If these warnings are not read to an arrestee as soon as he or she is taken into custody, any statements that the arrestee makes after the arrest may be excluded from trial. After the arrest, the police must follow certain guidelines during their investigations. For example, if the arrestee requests an attorney or expresses a wish to remain silent, the officers must honor the request and refrain from questioning the arrestee.

However, the police may attempt to confirm that they have arrested the right person. Therefore, if a person is under arrest, there are a number of important requirements that must be met in order for an action of arrest to be considered lawful. First, there should be a number of physical and verbal actions or statements that an arrestor must make, which can entail the physical restraining of a person, or communicating to the person that they no longer have the freedom to go about as they please e.

In terms of verbally communicating to the suspect, there is no need to use specific words but rather, if it is clearly communicated to the person that they are under arrest, such an action may be considered sufficient. If it is a police officer who informs a person that they are under arrest, and the officer simply touches the person, even if the person does not submit to the action, the arrest will still be considered valid.

As a consequence, if the person escapes or makes an attempt to escape, they may be committing an offence of attempting to escape from custody or resist arrest.

However, it should be communicated to the person that they must remain in the presence of the arrestor. One of the important aspects of the act of arresting an individual is that the action must be unequivocal. In the event that the person accompanies a police officer believing they were merely accompanying the officer, rather than knowing they have been arrested; in such a scenario, this may not be considered a valid arrest.

Although it should be highlighted that determining whether the person is volunteering to accompany an officer or under arrest can sometimes be difficult, as was the case in R v Inwood [] 1 WLR ; [] 2 AII ER , where Inwood attended a police station voluntarily to answer questions regarding a theft.

At the conclusion of the questioning, an officer informed Inwood that he would be charged with theft, and began to take his fingerprints without informing him that he was being placed under arrest. Subsequently, Inwood attempted to leave the police station and assaulted a number of officers in the process.