Types of Criminal Cases We Handle | If You Are Arrested or Accused | FAQs

Arrested/Accused?

If you are arrested, the decision whether to answer any questions or speak to any members of law enforcement or the media is entirely one of your own choosing. You must give the matter careful consideration. Oral and written statements may, and many times will, be received into evidence in court against you. If you are offered any inducement to sign a document or if you are threatened, coerced, or forced to sign anything; advise your attorney immediately as well as the senior police officials in charge of your arrest. If you do not have an attorney, you should ask to see one, immediately. If you are unable to afford an attorney, you have a right to be placed in touch with the Office of the Public Defender, immediately. If you are in doubt as to whether or not you should be talking with a police officer or other law enforcement official, you should wait until you have spoken to an attorney before giving up your right to remain silent.

When are you under arrest? You are arrested when a police officer takes you into custody or otherwise deprives you of your freedom of movement in any significant way, in order to hold you to answer for a criminal offense. Police officers and other law enforcement officials, under Florida law, are obligated to identify themselves and to advise you that you are under arrest and the reasons why, unless circumstances make it impossible for them to do so at that time. You may be under arrest even though no one has actually used the word “arrest” or any other comparable word. The fact that you have been deprived of your freedom of movement in some significant manner may amount legally to an arrest. Ordinarily, private citizens do not have the power of arrest in Florida; but under limited circumstances, private parties may make an arrest where the actual commission of a felony is involved.

Can a law enforcement officer detain you without arresting you? Based upon reasonable suspicion that you have been involved in criminal activity, a police officer may require you to identify yourself and explain your presence at a particular time, without arresting you. Under Florida law, the officer may not remove you from the immediate vicinity without making an arrest, unless you voluntarily accompany that officer to some other location.

If the officer has reasonable grounds to believe that you are armed, he or she may conduct a limited pat-down of your outer garments for purposes of detecting weapons for their own safety. If this “frisk” results in a reasonable belief on the part of the officer that you are carrying a weapon, the officer may remove the suspicious object for protection. The officers must return to you any object found, unless they place you under arrest. Unless the officer places you under arrest, the frisk or search must be limited to suspected weapons.

The officer may ask you some questions in order to fill out and complete a field interrogation card. You have a constitutional right to not answer them, or give your name, unless the officer has an articulable suspicion that you were involved in a crime.

At the conclusion of this temporary detention, the officer must either arrest you or let you go. If you should enter a retail establishment where goods are place on display and for sale, the merchant or employees may detain you on the premises for a reasonable time for questioning if they probable cause to believe that you have stolen or attempted to steal goods for sale. Under such circumstances, a police officer called to the scene may make an arrest for shoplifting, even though the alleged offense was not committed in the officer’s presence.

When are you arrested with a warrant? A police officer may arrest you at any time if he or she has a warrant for your arrest, or if the officer knows that the warrant for your arrest has been issued. A warrant is an order issued by a court charging that you committed a particular crime and directing the sheriff and all police officers of the state to arrest you and bring you before the court. You may require the officer to read the warrant to you after you have been arrested. An arrest warrant should not be confused with a search warrant.

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