Do You Have To Obey An Off Duty Police Officer? Do They Have To Identify Themselves?

You finish shopping, and you’re in the grocery store parking lot, and a person comes up to you and says, “look, I’m an off-duty police officer. I want to talk to you.” Do you have to obey them? What are their rights? Do they have to identify themselves. What is this situation? It seems rather strange, doesn’t it, that an off-duty police officer would approach you in that manner. This is a great question.

This is the Kruse law YouTube channel, and we try to break down common questions in plain and simple language. So first of all, what are your rights here? Do you have to obey an off-duty police officer in this situation and B do they have to identify themselves? So, let’s look at this way, when you’re a police officer in Ontario and throughout Canada for that matter you’re a police officer 24/7, even when you’re in plain clothes, so you have the same rights and duties as a police officer. You have arrest rights under the Criminal Code, etc., whether you’re on duty or not. So, in this situation, yes, a police officer if they witness a crime, for example, they can act as a police officer in that situation, arrest the person.

The caveat or the catch, though, is they have to identify themselves and provide ID, etc., as well. But if they see someone committing a crime, police officers off duty are expected to intervene in that situation, if they can do safely. Now, that’s the caveat, because most police forces will say, look, and you should consider calling back up. Can you really control the situation? Don’t put yourself in harm’s way. But technically, they have a duty to intervene, for example, even if they witness a traffic incident of careless driving, etc., they could, in theory, stop that vehicle and arrest them and identify themselves. But in this situation, if you’re approached and you know whether you’ve created a crime or not, for the most part, if you’re approached by an off-duty police officer, you can ask them, look, am I in arrest am I under detention? I want to see ID, etc., etc., and they have to produce that. That’s the caveat.

So it’s a 24/7 situation with the police with the caveat, though, that most police forces will say to the officer, “look, don’t necessarily put yourself in harm’s way”, but sometimes an officer, if they see a serious criminal offense, they kind of have a duty to intervene. I mean, let’s say, let’s say they see a sexual assault in progress in a downtown area. They have a duty. They’re, 24/7 police officers. They’re entitled to arrest that person. They’re entitled to use reasonable force to arrest the person they’d have to identify themselves, produce ID, but what an officer should do in that situation is call for backup right away.

And in other more serious situations, if you they don’t have their weapon on them, well, you got to be very careful, right? What if there’s a robbery in progress? How are you going to intervene? But to answer the simple question, yes, off duty police officers are 24/7, they can’t arrest, they can intervene. They have to use their discretion, and they should follow what it dictates from the chief of police there that need to protect yourself. You need to be cautious and careful and call for backup. So, there you have it, police officers out there, stay safe, stay informed, and follow your 24/7 duty.