arrest
Enable an AI agent to recognise a reported arrest, assess its execution and evidentially supported state, and identify actions permitted by the applicable authority and safeguards.
Research draft, second pass
A second pass drafted this model: the structure a model of this thing needs, and what is known about it in the world. The line under this one says how the second half was obtained - researched against sources, or recalled without web access, in which case nothing here was read anywhere and every claim is a lead to verify. Unreviewed either way.
Researched by: Codex + Grok
Purpose and description
Enable an AI agent to recognise a reported arrest, assess its execution and evidentially supported state, and identify actions permitted by the applicable authority and safeguards.
An arrest is a legally authorised seizure of a person into custody by a state agent (or, where statute allows, a private person), which deprives that person of liberty in order to bring them before a competent authority, to prevent an imminent offence, or to execute a judicial order, and which is distinct both from a brief investigative stop and from later detention or imprisonment.
It can be Reconstruct an arrest timeline from attributed accounts and records while retaining conflicts and uncertainty.; Assess whether evidence supports an attempt, acquisition of custody or another form of restriction under identified criteria.; Identify missing authority, grounds or identity evidence and route it for competent review.; Track applicable safeguards and time requirements, flag unmet conditions and identify authorised next steps.; Record and verify release or transfer of responsibility to a receiving custodian.; Produce an evidence-linked account for review without inferring guilt from the arrest..
Distinguishing features
Distinguish an arrest from a summons or voluntary interview by recording asserted custody authority and whether the person could actually decline or leave.
Distinguish an arrest from a stop, search or other temporary restriction using the applicable classification criteria and observed conduct; duration or an actor's label alone does not settle the boundary.
Distinguish an attempted arrest from an effected arrest by identifying whether the applicable custody threshold was reached and what evidence establishes that transition.
Distinguish an arrest from abduction or private confinement by examining asserted authority and context, while preserving the possibility that a purported arrest was unlawful.
Distinguish the arrest episode from subsequent detention by identifying the recorded release, handover or other locally applicable endpoint.
Scope
+ Identification of the person, arresting actors and particular arrest episode
+ Asserted authority, stated grounds and evidence supporting or disputing them
+ Attempt, communication, restraint and acquisition of custody
+ Arrest-related safeguards, immediate needs and reported departures from requirements
+ Release, handover or another recorded end to the arrest episode
- Investigation of the underlying suspected conduct
- Criminal charges, prosecution, trial and determination of guilt
- Continuing detention conditions and custody management after handover
- Sentencing and execution of punishment
- General police powers, institutional organisation and personnel management
- Medical diagnosis and treatment beyond recording arrest-related needs and referrals
Characteristics
- Arrest classification
- Reported classification under an identified jurisdiction and rule set; disputed or undetermined where necessary Different forms of arrest may have different powers, thresholds and safeguards.
- Episode state
- Reported, attempted, custody acquired, handed over, released, attempt discontinued, or unresolved; each with evidence Separates what was proposed or attempted from what occurred and how the episode ended.
- Arrest participants
- Person subjected to arrest, arresting actors, directing authority and receiving custodian, with role intervals Establishes who acted upon whom and who held responsibility at each transition.
- Authority basis
- Links to applicable powers, warrant or order where relevant, claimed exceptions and issuing authority Supports assessment of the specific authority claimed without treating its assertion as proof.
- Grounds and identity match
- Asserted, supported, contradicted, disputed or unassessed, separately for grounds and person identification An authority instrument may exist while its application to this person or situation remains uncertain.
- Custody onset and elapsed time
- Timestamp with time zone and uncertainty; elapsed seconds, minutes or hours from each applicable trigger Supports event reconstruction and assessment of jurisdiction-specific time requirements.
- Restriction and force
- Observed restrictions, restraint devices, force actions and changes over time; unknown explicitly recorded Makes the practical exercise of control assessable independently of its formal description.
- Safeguard fulfilment
- Per applicable safeguard: due, fulfilled, delayed, declined, disputed, not applicable or unknown Connects immediate actions to evidenced obligations and the person's circumstances.
- Validity assessment
- Unassessed, contested or assessed by an identified competent reviewer, with scope, reasons and date Prevents factual occurrence, procedural compliance and legal validity from collapsing into one status.
Also called
Where this came from
wikidata · CC0 1.0
Drafted structure
Bundle to layer to finding to question, as the second pass will find it: 6 bundles · 11 layers · 18 findings · 35 questions.
Arrest identity and boundaries Establishes which episode is being modelled and whether its reported conduct fits an arrest.
Arrest records can conflate an encounter, an attempted arrest, acquisition of custody and later detention.
Episode and participants
Identifies the person, actors and event without assuming that their reported identities or roles are settled.
Person, actor and episode match
Records evidence connecting the affected person and arresting actors to this particular occurrence.
- Which person was subjected to the alleged arrest, which actors participated, and how was each identified? provenance
- What establishes that these accounts concern the same episode rather than a separate arrest or another person's encounter? boundary
Arrest threshold
Separates reported labels from the factual and jurisdictional basis for classifying the event.
Classification and custody threshold
Records the applicable arrest criteria alongside the observed restriction and any competing classification.
- Under the identified rule set, what distinguishes arrest from a stop, voluntary attendance or another restriction in this situation? definition
- What conduct and evidence establish whether and when that threshold was crossed? provenance
- Which classifications remain disputed, and whose assessment supports each? boundary
Arrest authority and grounds Connects the asserted power to the actor, person and circumstances of the arrest.
An arrest's occurrence does not establish that its actor had authority or that its grounds were satisfied.
Power and instrument
Identifies the claimed source and limits of arrest authority.
Applicable arrest power
Records the power invoked, any supporting instrument and unresolved limits on its application.
- What power, warrant, order or other basis did the actor invoke, and which jurisdiction and version of the rules apply? provenance
- What actor, territorial, temporal or person-specific limits apply, and what evidence shows they were satisfied? boundary
Grounds and target
Separates the reason for arrest from evidence that it applied to this person at the relevant time.
Grounds at time of arrest
Preserves the stated grounds, information available when the decision was made and later challenges.
- What grounds were asserted, by whom, and what supporting information was available when the arrest decision was made? provenance
- What connects those grounds or the named target in an instrument to the person actually arrested? provenance
- What contradiction, identity uncertainty or missing prerequisite requires review before further action? action
Arrest execution and control Records how the arrest was attempted or effected and how control over the person changed.
Words, restraint and practical custody may occur at different times and support different accounts of the event.
Communication and custody onset
Reconstructs the transition from encounter to attempted or effected arrest.
Arrest transition sequence
Records declarations, instructions, responses and acquisition of control with attributed times.
- What was communicated about arrest, authority and reasons, in what language or form, and what evidence records the exchange? provenance
- When and where did the attempt begin and custody become effective, and how precise or contested are those observations? measurement
Restraint, force and movement
Captures the actual means and consequences of exercising control during the arrest.
Control actions and effects
Records restrictions, force, movements and reported effects without assuming their justification.
- Which actor applied each restriction or force action, when did it start and stop, and what reason did the actor give? provenance
- What movements, observed injuries, distress or other effects occurred, and which records or witnesses support them? provenance
- What immediate care, restraint reassessment or review is indicated under the applicable requirements and observed circumstances? action
Arrest safeguards and time Tracks requirements and immediate needs triggered by this arrest.
The person's circumstances and the applicable rules determine which protections and time-sensitive actions must be assessed.
Notice, assistance and needs
Records applicable safeguards and whether the person could meaningfully access them.
Person-specific safeguards
Connects notice, communication, assistance and care requirements to evidence of their delivery or absence.
- Which notice, legal assistance, interpretation, notification or care requirements apply to this person and arrest, and what sources establish them? definition
- What was provided, requested, delayed or declined, and what supports any recorded understanding, refusal or waiver? provenance
- What unmet need or safeguard calls for an immediate authorised response, and who is responsible? action
Triggered clocks
Identifies arrest-related deadlines and their precise triggering events.
Deadline basis and status
Records sourced time requirements separately from the factual timestamps used to assess them.
- Which applicable requirement creates each deadline, what event starts it, and what documented exceptions or extensions affect it? definition
- Using the supported trigger time and its uncertainty, what time remains or has elapsed beyond the deadline? measurement
- Which authorised action or escalation is required when a deadline approaches, expires or cannot be reliably calculated? action
Arrest disposition and review Establishes how the arrest episode ended and how its disputed aspects are assessed.
A recorded handover or release must not conceal responsibility gaps or turn an unresolved legality question into a settled conclusion.
Release or custody handover
Records the episode endpoint and continuity of responsibility.
Arrest endpoint
Identifies release, discontinued attempt, transfer or another evidenced endpoint and any continuing process.
- What event ends this arrest episode under the chosen boundary, and when and where did it occur? boundary
- Who authorised release or accepted custody, and what evidence confirms the person's resulting situation? provenance
- What unresolved needs, deadlines or responsibility must be passed to the receiving custodian or linked process? action
Contested arrest assessment
Preserves evidence conflicts and distinguishes allegations from competent determinations.
Occurrence, compliance and validity
Keeps findings about what happened separate from procedural assessment and legal determination.
- Which aspects of occurrence, grounds, execution or safeguards are contested, and what evidence supports each account? provenance
- Has a competent reviewer made a determination, and what exactly did it decide, on which evidence and with what remaining uncertainty? provenance
- What review, correction or evidence-preservation action is available to the agent within its authorised role? action
Evidence and external alignment What the world already says about this thing, gathered so the model can be checked against it.
A model that cannot be lined up against existing standards, identifiers and practice cannot be adopted by anyone who already uses them.
Reported evidence
Findings from the breadth pass, kept separate from the structural claims.
Kinds and varieties
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- warrant arrest (judicially pre-authorised taking into custody)
- warrantless arrest on probable cause or in flagrante delicto
- citizen's arrest / private person's arrest
- custodial arrest versus citation or summons in lieu of arrest
- arrest for extradition or European Arrest Warrant surrender
- administrative or immigration arrest
- juvenile arrest under a distinct procedural regime
- mass or public-order arrest during assemblies or operations
- Which of these kinds and varieties hold for the sense of arrest this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Identifiers and schemes
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Wikidata - Q1403016 - Item 'arrest' as a legal taking into custody; not cardiac arrest (Q202837), arrest warrant (Q584041), or arbitrary arrest and detention (Q2080864).
- Wikipedia - Arrest - English sitelink title for the legal process.
- Library of Congress Subject Headings - Arrest - Authority heading for the legal act; control number not restated here because it was not re-checked in this pass.
- Which of these identifiers and schemes hold for the sense of arrest this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Standards and regulation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 9 - United Nations (General Assembly / OHCHR): arrest only as prescribed by law; prompt reasons, judicial control and a remedy for unlawful arrest.
- UN Human Rights Committee, General Comment No. 35 on Article 9 - treaty-body interpretation of arrest, detention, promptness and arbitrariness.
- European Convention on Human Rights, Article 5 - Council of Europe: exhaustive lawful grounds, prompt information and prompt judicial control of arrest.
- American Convention on Human Rights, Article 7 - Organization of American States: freedom from arbitrary arrest; prompt notice and judicial review.
- African Charter on Human and Peoples' Rights, Article 6 - African Union: no arbitrary arrest or detention.
- Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment (UNGA res. 43/173, 1988) - United Nations: records, notification, counsel and medical safeguards from the moment of arrest.
- Constitution of the United States, Fourth Amendment - seizure of the person; Fifth and Sixth Amendments as applied in Miranda v. Arizona to custodial interrogation.
- County of Riverside v. McLaughlin, 500 U.S. 44 (1991) - Supreme Court of the United States: 48-hour rule for a probable-cause determination after a warrantless arrest.
- Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 and PACE Code G - United Kingdom (Home Office / Parliament): necessity of arrest and the custody clock in England and Wales.
- Council Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA - Council of the European Union: European arrest warrant as a judicial surrender instrument.
- Which of these standards and regulation hold for the sense of arrest this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Real-world use
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- A police officer takes a suspect from a street, dwelling or vehicle to a station after a crime in progress or after an investigation, then books identity, fingerprints and a custody record.
- Execution of a judicial arrest warrant at a known address or after a traffic stop.
- Decision after arrest to charge, grant bail or police release, or hold for court; many low-level offences are instead handled by citation or summons without a custodial arrest.
- Immigration and border officers take a person into administrative custody pending removal or identity checks.
- Cross-border surrender: a requested person is arrested under a European Arrest Warrant or an extradition request and produced before a local court.
- Arrest statistics are used by police, ministries of justice and journalists as an indicator of enforcement activity, not as a count of convictions.
- Defence lawyers, prosecutors and custody sergeants treat the moment of arrest as the start of the custody clock, caution/Miranda duties, and the right to notify a third party.
- Which of these real-world use hold for the sense of arrest this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Typical measurements
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- time from warrantless arrest to first judicial probable-cause review (US Riverside rule) - within 48 as the general constitutional outer bound; shorter in many local practices - h
- maximum police detention before charge under PACE (England and Wales) - 24 ordinary; 36 with superintendent authorisation; 96 for indictable offences with magistrates' warrant - h
- time from arrest to first judicial appearance in many ICCPR/ECHR jurisdictions - 24-48 in ordinary criminal codes; treaty bodies treat much beyond 48 as requiring strong justification - h
- French garde à vue before prosecutor/judge control (ordinary offences) - 24, extendable once to 48; longer special maxima for organised crime and terrorism - h
- Which of these typical measurements hold for the sense of arrest this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Failure modes and hazards
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- Arbitrary or unlawful arrest: no statutory ground, no probable cause/reasonable suspicion, or arrest used as punishment rather than to bring the person before a court.
- Failure to inform the person promptly of the reasons for arrest and of any charge, in a language they understand.
- Excessive force, positional asphyxia, or death in custody during or immediately after the taking.
- Wrongful arrest through mistaken identity, stale warrant, or fabricated suspicion.
- Discriminatory targeting (race, status, political opinion) that makes the arrest arbitrary even if a formal ground is recited.
- Denial of access to a lawyer, family notification, or medical examination in the hours after arrest.
- Coerced or unreliable confession obtained in custody because the person is not free to leave.
- Incommunicado or unrecorded arrest, which conceals enforced disappearance and blocks habeas corpus.
- Citizen's arrest that is in fact assault or false imprisonment because statutory conditions were not met.
- Over-arrest of juveniles or of minor offences that a summons could have handled, with lasting criminal-record harm.
- Which of these failure modes and hazards hold for the sense of arrest this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Regional variation
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- United States: arrest is a Fourth Amendment seizure of the person; warrantless arrests rest on probable cause; Miranda warnings attach to custodial interrogation; many misdemeanours are cited rather than booked.
- England and Wales: PACE imposes a necessity test (Code G) and a running custody clock; the person is 'arrested and cautioned'; 'detention' after arrival at the station is a distinct statutory phase.
- France: everyday police stopping is often interpellation; garde à vue is the timed police custody that follows arrestation; détention provisoire is later judicial remand, not the arrest itself.
- Germany: vorläufige Festnahme (StPO § 127) is the on-the-spot taking; Untersuchungshaft is court-ordered pre-trial detention after a judge has spoken.
- China: criminal detention (xingshi juliu) by police is distinct from arrest (daibu), which generally requires procuratorate approval.
- European Union: the European Arrest Warrant replaces classic extradition among Member States; national arrest powers still apply to the taking on the requested territory.
- Citizen's arrest is a recognised common-law or statutory power in the UK, US, Canada and Australia, and is narrow or absent in many civil-law codes.
- Some systems still allow civil arrest for debt or contempt; others abolished it and confine arrest to criminal or immigration process.
- Which of these regional variation hold for the sense of arrest this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart
Reported by the breadth pass; each item needs checking against its source before it becomes normative.
- detention - Detention is the continuing deprivation of liberty after (or sometimes without) a taking; arrest is the act of seizing the person. Test: whether one is describing the capturing event or the subsequent holding.
- stop and search / Terry stop - A brief investigative stop on reasonable suspicion, without moving the person into the criminal-process custody of a station. Test: would a reasonable person feel free to leave, and is the person being transported or booked?
- arrest warrant - The judicial instrument that authorises an arrest, not the arrest. Test: is the object a document/order or the taking of a body?
- charge / accusation - A formal allegation of an offence, which may follow arrest or proceed by summons without any taking into custody.
- imprisonment / incarceration - Court-ordered confinement after conviction or as sentenced remand in prison, not the police or private act of capturing.
- house arrest - A court-imposed restriction of movement to a residence (often a sentence or bail condition), not the original seizure of the person.
- extradition / surrender - The interstate process of handing a person over; arrest on the requested territory is one step inside that process, not the whole of it.
- cardiac arrest - Sudden cessation of effective circulation (Wikidata Q202837). Homonym only; test is medical circulation versus legal custody of a person.
- Which of these neighbouring kinds and how to tell them apart hold for the sense of arrest this model covers, and on what evidence? provenance
Sources
- arrest (Q1403016) - Wikidata, Wikimedia Foundation - Canonical item for the legal process of arrest as a taking into custody; registry mapping for this entry.
- Arrest - Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation - Working definition as apprehension into custody; warrant versus warrantless and citizen's arrest; distinction from a stop; booking and presentation to a court.
- International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, Article 9 - United Nations (OHCHR) - Arrest only as prescribed by law; prompt notice of reasons and any charge; prompt appearance before a judge; habeas corpus; compensation for unlawful arrest.
- General Comment No. 35: Article 9 (Liberty and security of person) - UN Human Rights Committee - Arrest as the act of taking into custody versus continuing detention; 48-hour outer bound often treated as the prompt-appearance standard; arbitrary arrest.
- European Convention on Human Rights, Article 5 - Council of Europe - Exhaustive grounds for arrest or detention; prompt reasons in a language understood; prompt judicial control; compensation for breach.
- Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 - United Kingdom (legislation.gov.uk) - Statutory power and necessity of arrest; custody clock (ordinarily 24 hours, extendable); caution and rights of a person under arrest in England and Wales.
- Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966) - Supreme Court of the United States - Custodial interrogation warnings once a person is in custody; custody as the operational threshold that turns a stop into an arrest-like seizure for Fifth Amendment purposes.
- County of Riverside v. McLaughlin, 500 U.S. 44 (1991) - Supreme Court of the United States - Warrantless arrest must be followed by a prompt judicial probable-cause determination, with 48 hours as the general outer bound in US practice.
- Council Framework Decision 2002/584/JHA on the European arrest warrant - Council of the European Union (EUR-Lex) - Cross-border arrest and surrender among EU Member States as a judicial rather than classic extradition procedure.
- Body of Principles for the Protection of All Persons under Any Form of Detention or Imprisonment - UN General Assembly resolution 43/173 (1988) - Record of arrest, notice to family, access to counsel, medical examination, and the distinction between arrest, detention and imprisonment.
What the second pass must settle
- Does the registry intend arrest to cover criminal, civil, administrative, military and private-person arrests, or a narrower class?
- Which jurisdiction-specific criteria distinguish arrest from other restrictions, including cases where formal labels and practical control diverge?
- Where should this catalogue place the boundary between the arrest episode, transport, booking and continuing detention?
- Which authoritative sources establish applicable powers, grounds, safeguards, deadline triggers and exceptions for each supported context?
- How should the model represent purported arrests, unlawful arrests and mistaken-identity cases without conflating occurrence with legal validity?