Arrest, Detention, and Search Authority of Private Security
What this domain tests
This domain tests the practical limits of private arrest, investigative detention, and search. The exam wants you to know when a guard may hold someone, how long, and what may be searched-and when the answer is “call police and do not search.”
Core rules
- A private security officer may make a citizen arrest under La. Code Crim. Proc. art. 214 for a felony or a misdemeanor committed in his presence, then deliver the person to police under art. 215.
- Detention must be temporary and reasonable. The guard may use reasonable force to detain and may summon police, but may not hold someone indefinitely or demand payment in exchange for release.
- Search authority is limited. Valid bases include voluntary consent, plain view, a search authorized by the property owner for premises (not automatically the person), and a weapons pat-down when the guard has reasonable suspicion the person is armed and dangerous.
- A bag search at an entrance may be a condition of entry, but refusal should lead to denial of entry, not a forced search. Strip searches are not within private security authority.
- Private guards generally are not required to give Miranda warnings because they are not state actors, but they must not act as police agents to circumvent constitutional rules.
Worked example
A guard sees a man take a phone from a display and put it in his jacket. The guard detains him near the exit, identifies himself, and calls police. The man says, “Search me, I don’t care.” The guard may conduct a limited consent search, but should first confirm consent and stop if it is withdrawn. Without consent, the guard should not reach into the jacket; he should secure the scene and let police search incident to arrest.
Traps
Searching first and calling police later; treating a detention as an arrest; holding a person in a back room for hours; and assuming entrance signage authorizes a forced personal search.