Keisha N. Blain, Ph.D.

“Citizen’s arrest laws have their roots in the European practice of private arrests, where citizens could detain someone they witnessed committing a crime. In Colonial America — before the establishment of police forces — they were a method of maintaining peace and safety. However, the spread of these laws in America coincided with the rise of slave patrols. Like the growth of law enforcement in the United States, we should not view citizen’s arrests as race neutral.”