Can an Ordinary Citizen Make an Arrest in PNG?

Shopkeepers, security guards, employers, bus crews and community leaders all ask the same question: can I arrest someone myself? In Papua New Guinea the answer is a qualified yes. Section 5 of the Arrest Act (Chapter 339) confers the power, but it is deliberately narrower than the police power, and Part V then imposes duties that most people making such an arrest have never read.

The power: section 5

Subject to any requirements imposed by the law creating the offence, a person other than a policeman may, without warrant, arrest a person whom he believes on reasonable grounds:

• is committing; or
• has committed,

an offence for which the penalty is imprisonment.

Two differences from the police power

Put section 5 beside section 3, which governs police, and the limits become clear.

First, there is no “about to commit”. A policeman may arrest a person believed on reasonable grounds to be about to commit an offence. A private citizen may not. You may act on an offence in progress or one already committed — not on one you expect.

Second, the offence must carry imprisonment. A policeman may arrest for any offence. A citizen may arrest only where the penalty for the offence is imprisonment. And section 1(2) narrows this further: an offence does not count as one punishable by imprisonment merely because imprisonment may be imposed in default of payment of a fine.

“Reasonable grounds” applies to you too

Section 1(3) applies to a citizen exactly as it applies to police. You must personally hold the belief, and there must be reasonable grounds for it. Acting on a rumour, on someone else’s accusation you have not tested, or on appearance alone will not satisfy the second limb.

What you must do afterwards: section 16

This is the part most often missed. Where a person who is not a policeman makes an arrest, section 16 requires that he shall:

• as soon as practicable, hand the arrested person over to a policeman, or take them — or cause them to be taken — to a police station; and
• use all reasonable means to prevent the arrested person escaping.

Section 16(2) applies the same limit that runs through the whole Act: this does not justify the use of greater force than is reasonable in the circumstances.

There is no power to hold someone overnight, to question them, to search their home, to demand payment or compensation, or to punish them. A citizen’s arrest is a short bridge to a police station and nothing more.

The burden of proof falls on you

Section 28 is the provision that should give pause to anyone considering a citizen’s arrest. In a civil proceeding, where it appears that one party had another in custody after an arrest and was not a policeman, that party bears the onus of proving that he:

• handed the person over to a policeman as soon as was practicable; or
• took them, or caused them to be taken, to a police station as soon as was practicable; or
• dealt with them under section 19 (warrant of commitment).

Ordinarily a plaintiff must prove their case. Here the Act reverses that. If you are sued over a citizen’s arrest, you must prove you complied — not the other side prove you did not. Without a note of times, a witness, or a record at the station, that is a hard burden to discharge.

Weigh the risk before you act

One related power sits alongside section 5: under section 6, the person in command of an aircraft or vessel, or someone authorised by them, may arrest without warrant for an offence relating to the use of the craft — a broader power than the ordinary citizen’s.

Otherwise, the Act permits a citizen’s arrest; it does not encourage one. The safer course in almost every case is to observe, record and call police. Where a person is detained by a group rather than handed over promptly, the situation can escalate into serious criminal conduct — and nothing in the Act will protect those involved.