It is quite common today to hear about people being threatened with arrest. Quite often it surrounds some sort of traffic violation. A police officer may arrest you only in terms of the Criminal Procedure Act in two ways: with a warrant, or without a warrant. Generally, a warrant would only be issued if there is a reasonable suspicion that you have committed a crime. Let’s look rather at where a warrant of arrest has not been issued. This is more likely when you are alleged to have committed a crime in the police officer’s presence. The point of an arrest is to bring an accused to justice. This means that a police officer cannot arrest you to frighten or harass you. An arrest should be a last resort, precisely because it is such a serious limitation of freedom. An arrest is only one way to bring you to court to stand trial. Another way is through a summons, which is a written notice to appear in court on a particular day. If the police know where you live, or there is little chance that you will abscond or interfere with your case, or if the crime is a minor one, or if the matter is not urgent, you should be issued a summons rather than be arrested. And if you fail to obey the summons, you can then be arrested, which maybe would deserved. So, let’s say that you, or a loved one, has been arrested and is now sitting in a police cell somewhere you may want to be aware of [S59] of the Criminal Procedures Act 1977 which states, paraphrasing, “An accused who is in custody in respect of any offence, other than stated major offences, before his or her first appearance in a lower court, be released on bail in respect of such offence by any police official of or above the rank of non-commissioned officer, in consultation with the police official charged with the investigation, if the accused deposits at the police station the sum of money determined by such police official.”
So, if you are arrested, and it is for a minor offence, which is most probable, then you can get released almost straight away by posting police bail and then let the judicial system take its natural course.
