Recognizing Noncompliance with Specific Laws
What this domain tests
This domain asks you to read a fact pattern and decide whether a Nevada criminal statute has been broken, by a citizen or by the guard. Security work involves a small set of offenses, so know their elements cold.
Offenses you will see
Trespass, NRS 207.200. A person commits trespass by entering or remaining on property after the owner or lawful occupant warns them not to, or asks them to leave. The warning can be oral or posted. A guard working for the property owner can give the warning.
Larceny and shoplifting. The elements are a trespassory taking and carrying away of another's property with intent to permanently deprive. Concealment plus passing the last point of sale is strong evidence of intent, but the act is not complete until the item is carried away.
Assault, NRS 200.471. An unlawful attempt, with present ability, to commit battery, or intentionally placing someone in reasonable apprehension of immediate bodily harm. Words alone usually are not assault.
Battery, NRS 200.481. Willful and unlawful use of force or violence on another person. Any unwanted touching can qualify.
Worked example
A shopper places two bottles of liquor in a backpack, walks past every register, and heads for the exit. The guard has concealment, passage of the last point of sale, and conduct suggesting intent. That supports a detention for investigation or a citizen's arrest. If instead the shopper carries the bottle openly and walks toward the door to ask the greeter a question, the intent element is missing; a detention would be false imprisonment.
Traps
Do not treat suspicion as probable cause. Do not call an unpaid bill theft without evidence of fraudulent intent. Do not arrest for a misdemeanor you did not see. Do not assume a guard's own conduct is lawful just because the company authorized it; an unlawful detention or excessive force is still a crime and a tort.