[dogma1138]

"Secret" arrests are fairly common, they are often used daily when you need to arrest a large group of people without them scattering.

Say you have 5 arrests warrants for members of a gang, you often can't arrest them all the once so here is where the "secret" comes into play when they are arrested and the arrest is maintained confidential for 24-48 hours depending on the jurisdiction.

This is done to prevent the rest from scattering into hiding as soon as the news of one or more of them getting arrested breaks, this also means they won't hold down somewhere and be ready for a fight, or even go and do something worse like take hostages in order to try to get out of dodge.

This also means that in some rights are withheld for the duration of the "gag order" like access to a phone or an attorney, however the police is not allowed to question or formally charge the subjects during that period either, so while there is some violation of rights it is not egregious.

[jbapple]

This arrest happened in late August, it seems. Has SCOTUS set limits on how long prisoners can be held secretly?

[dogma1138]

Criminal justice gags are usually hours to days depending on the case.

The longer ones are usually to protect the arrestee if they are being put into protective custody / witness protection or are released as an informant.

Since this is national security related who knows, I don't even know if these cases have been brought up to the supreme court before.

[pjlegato]

Yes, unsurprisingly there is an enormous amount of case law on this topic.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habeas_corpus_in_the_United_St...

[fredgrott]

if its a computer access break-in FED law states 90 days notice..while not directly applying it would seem if someone was caught on illegal access after 90 days FEDs would have to let both the criminal know and theri lawyer so arrest would no longer be secret at thatpoint.

[rconti]

I guess, then, the real question is, what is a "non-secret" arrest? Do the police/FBI routinely release public information in the case of every arrest?

[williamscales]

I think in a "non-secret" request you may contact an attorney or family member.