Do You Legally Have To Stay If Security Accuses You Of Shoplifting?

You’ve left the store and you’re in the parking lot and a security guard with a badge on and whatnot says, security approaches and says, “you’re under arrest. I saw you shoplifting.” They put their hands on, they detain you. Are they allowed to do that? Great question. 

Welcome again to Kruse law firm, YouTube channel. We break down common questions in plain language. So the question for today is, obviously, can they do this? Can they legally detain you and place you under arrest if they’ve seen you shoplifting, for example? 

Well, we have to break it down. We have to go back to what a security guard is. The security guard is a private citizen who’s working for a company. Obviously, sometimes they’ll have uniforms, sometimes not, and they have limited rights. They’re not like police, but they can place a person under a citizen arrest, just like you or I could under Section 494, of the Criminal Code. 

If we see someone committing an offense, we could place them under arrest and potentially detain them and call police. If this happens to you, and they say, look, “we’ve seen you shoplifting” they place you under arrest. You do have to stay, if you resist for example, you could be charged with resist. But they have obligations too, and you have rights in this situation. First of all, you have the right to remain silent under Section seven became Charter Rights and Freedoms, and under the common law of hundreds of years, back in the Old English times, right to silence. 

Second of all, don’t say anything to them. In other words, just be calm. Be polite, be respectful. Make sure you ask them, “am I under arrest?” If you are, don’t resist. Just stay polite and calm. The police will arrive. They have to call the police right away and wait for the police. It can’t be excessively long that they don’t call the police or they can be charged with a breach, and you can potentially get your case thrown out for excessive delay in your detention. So the police will come, ask for a lawyer. When you get to the police, they’ll give you a lawyer. 

They’ll place you under arrest too. You’ll probably get charged with shoplifting. Unfortunately, if the security guard saw you or had reasonable grounds. This is to believe you were a shoplifter, but those are the only things. 

A security guard is no different than a private citizen, they have to have grounds that to arrest you. They have to call the police right away. They have to only use reasonable force, like placing your hand and stopping you. As reasonable force If you start resisting, you know what’s going to happen, you’re going to get in a fight with a security guard. Who’s the person that’s going to get charged and who they’re going to believe? The security guard, whether it’s true or not, so just stay calm. Be polite. Ask if you’re under arrest. If they say yes, stay, wait for the police. Ask for a lawyer when the police arrive. So, there you have it. 

The simple answer is yes, if a security guard sees you committing an offense or has reasonable probable grounds that you have committed an offense, maybe it’s someone else in the stores told another security guard or it’s on video. Yes, they can arrest you. Yes, you have to stay wait for the police, but make sure you exercise your rights. Well, there it is. Stay safe, stay protected. Know Your Rights and make sure if you ever in the situation, even if you didn’t do the shoplifting, if they say you’re under arrest, you need to stay, just shut up and follow those rights, because sometimes security guards make mistakes and they see something that looked like a shoplifting. Maybe you put a little item in your pocket mistakenly. I’ve seen that happen. People are absent minded, or they walked out without pain, not even thinking, just a little item. So, you have to be careful in a store. Don’t walk out like that, by the way. But many people have been in that situation charged a falsely as well.