Quote Originally Posted by Questor View Post
This thread is really interesting, thanks guys especially nice to hear the views of a lawyer and an officer. So I have two more probably dumb questions. The first one is, what does our state define as a 'law enforcement officer?' Would the two guys involved in the Moore incident from the other agency, I think they were game wardens or something like that, would they be considered officers under the law?

The second question is something that Brian brought up... "citizens arrests." I could have sworn a lawyer friend once told me that there was no such thing codified in our law and that it was basically a TV drama thing. Is that not the case? Can a non-LEO person "detain" another private citizen? I assume if they can and they are wrong, or don't have iron-clad evidence, they are in a position of extreme liability.

And yep, I understand that in the Moore scenario several on-duty officers arrived and responded at the scene. My question was more hypothetical.
Citizen's arrest is very real and covered under Oklahoma law. That said, there really is no black and white "citizen's arrest procedure." Its a huge grey area within the law. Want to see citizen's arrest pushed to extremes you had no idea existed ... ride along with bounty hunters (which I've done many times). In all reality, citizens have more (or broader) arrest powers than police in many circumstances. The law says when a citizen can (and in some case is obligated to) arrest someone. The problem is, the guidelines to do so don't really exist and citizens certainly do not have any training or policies to follow like police do.

Can a non-LEO person "detain" another private citizen?
Absolutely. You just open yourself up to civil and possible criminal liability.