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Arrest without a warrant

Summary of the topic

Texas keeps the arrest warrant as the rule and lists the exceptions. Chapter 14 of the Code of Criminal Procedure is that list, and nothing outside it will do. A candidate who can name which article authorizes a given arrest, and say what that article requires, has the whole topic.

Article 14.01 covers the offense the officer sees. Under article 14.01(b), a peace officer may arrest for any offense committed in the officer's presence or within the officer's view, whatever its class. Article 14.01(a) gives the same in-view power to a peace officer or any other person, but only for a felony or an offense against the public peace, so the private person's power is the narrow one.

Article 14.03(a) lists the arrests an officer may make without seeing the offense. They include a person found in a suspicious place in circumstances that reasonably show guilt of a felony, a disorderly conduct offense, a breach of the peace or public intoxication. They also include a person the officer has probable cause to believe committed an assault causing bodily injury where there is danger of further injury, a person believed to have committed a family violence offense, and a person who prevented another from placing an emergency call.

The protective order rules point in two directions. Under article 14.03(a)(3), arrest for a suspected protective order violation outside the officer's presence is discretionary. Under article 14.03(b), arrest is mandatory where the officer has probable cause to believe a Penal Code section 25.07 offense was committed in the officer's presence.

Article 14.04 covers the felony the officer did not see. It has two conditions, a credible person's representation that a felony has been committed and an offender who is about to escape so that there is no time to get a warrant. Urgency alone is not enough, and a credible report alone is not enough.

Two further limits apply after the decision to arrest. Article 14.05 means an arrest power is not an entry power, so an officer may enter a residence only with the consent of a person who resides there or under exigent circumstances. Article 14.06(a) requires the arrested person to be taken before a magistrate without unnecessary delay and not later than 48 hours after the arrest. Penal Code section 38.03 makes it an offense to use force to prevent or obstruct an arrest, and it is no defense that the arrest was unlawful.

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