3.1 Current Arrest Limits, Police Assistance & Witness Role

Current law controls

Delaware enacted 11 Del. C. § 1914 in 2025. The current statute prohibits arrest or detention by a person who is not specifically authorized by statute to make that arrest or detention. A Delaware Yellow Card does not itself provide such arrest authority. The guard is a regulated private employee, not a peace officer, constable, or general law-enforcement agent.

This rule changes the answer found in older Delaware State Police study material that described a common-law citizen arrest for a breach of the peace committed in the guard's presence. That older statement must not be used as current authority. The current Delaware Code and the 2025 session law control. Candidates should therefore reject an answer that grants a private guard a general breach-of-peace arrest power.

Arrest, detention, and voluntary contact

Section 1901 defines arrest as taking a person into custody so the person will answer for a crime. Detention also restricts freedom, even if the guard does not use the word "arrest." Section 1914 covers both.

A private guard may still make a voluntary request, apply a lawful condition of entry, deny admission, or direct an unauthorized person to leave private property. The key is not to convert a request or property rule into custody without a specific statute.

A person can be detained through words or positioning without handcuffs. Blocking every exit, surrounding the person, holding identification so departure is impractical, locking a room, or announcing that the person may not leave can amount to detention. A uniform and badge can make a command appear compulsory, so the guard should clearly distinguish a request from a lawful property direction.

Specific statutory authority is exceptional

Section 1914 preserves authority that another statute expressly supplies. The most relevant example for this curriculum is 11 Del. C. § 840(c): a merchant, supervisor, agent, or employee who is at least eighteen and has the required probable cause may take a suspected shoplifter into custody on the premises, in a reasonable manner, for a reasonable time to summon law enforcement. The next section teaches every limit of that provision.

Other occupations or settings may have their own narrow statutes. A guard should never reason that one exception creates a general private arrest power. Confirm the exact law, the person covered, the triggering facts, the purpose, location, manner, and duration. Employer policy may be more restrictive and can assign the task to designated staff.

Assisting a peace officer

Section 1914(b) permits a private citizen to assist when a peace officer is attempting an arrest or detention upon the officer's request or if the officer is incapacitated. This is not advance authority to initiate a separate arrest. If an officer requests assistance, listen to the specific instruction, identify hazards, use only lawful and necessary action, and stop when the request or emergency ends. Call for additional police and medical help as needed and report the assistance through the employer.

Do not interfere with officers, reach for their equipment, or join merely because a struggle is visible when the facts and need are unclear. The incapacitation provision addresses an officer who cannot request needed assistance; it is not a pretext for taking control of an unrelated encounter.

Observe, protect, and transfer

When suspected crime occurs outside a specific statutory detention authority:

1. Move people away from immediate danger and call 911 when urgent.
2. Observe actions, descriptions, location, direction, companions, vehicle, weapons, and injuries.
3. Follow post orders for supervision, alarms, access controls, and preservation.
4. Do not pursue or block a person merely to investigate a suspicion.
5. Protect the scene and preserve video, access records, objects, and witness information.
6. Give police a concise chronological account, clearly labeling personal observation and secondhand reports.

Ordinary traffic violations do not give a guard stop authority. Record useful vehicle details from safety and refer the matter to police. The older official guide's discussion of State v. Vouras, where evidence followed an unauthorized security stop and search, remains a practical warning even though the current statutory rule is now more explicit.

Property control without private custody

A guard can keep a locked boundary locked, refuse a credential, close a gate, or ask a person to leave. If a person refuses, advise supervision and law enforcement rather than surrounding or transporting the person. Emergency protective force is analyzed under the separate justification statutes in Chapter 4; self-protection does not create authority to hold someone after the threat ends.

The exam-ready rule is: no private arrest or detention without specific statutory authority. Identify an actual exception—such as the tightly limited merchant provision—or remain in the observe, protect, report, and police-assistance role.

Knowledge and professionalism

Review the actual post authority at every assignment. A hospital, store, residential complex, and industrial plant present different access rules, but none changes the guard into a public officer. Keep the physical Yellow Card available as required, identify the employing agency accurately, and never use police-style language to obtain cooperation. When a public officer requests assistance, understand the instruction and communicate it through supervision when time permits; do not assume cooperation transfers every police power to the guard.