[freeopinion]

I'd settle for experimenting with "same".

If a regular citizen can't plant a bug, neither can police. If police can conduct a stakeout, so can regular citizens. They just have to follow the same process. That might include going in front of a judge and getting a warrant.

If a regular citizen could break up a bar fight, the police should be able to take the same actions. If police can set up a sting operation, so should citizens be allowed.

Obviously, we don't want everybody running around conducting sting operations or traffic stops. So we set some bar for regular citizens that makes it less likely. But police should have to face the exact same bar. The difference is that we pay for their time, training, equipment, etc. If a certain level of training is required before anybody can make a traffic stop, that training should be open for anybody. We just pay the admission and the salary for police to take the training. Regular citizens foot their own bill.

Edit: poor proofreading

[L0stRegulator]

So the obvious question then is should we be allowed place trackers in police cars, so we can track them on Waze (for example), and it would be a crime for them to remove it.

Equivalencies of Powers/Rights is a good thought experiment that would keep the powers of the enforcers from multiplying without limits.

[dbdjfjrjvebd]

If authorized by a judge then yes.

[fargle]

amen.

and if magnetic shit falls off my car, that's the breaks, suckers.

[DagAgren]

So which do you think makes more sense: Police are not allowed to arrest people, or everyone is allowed to arrest?

[icebraining]

Everyone being allowed to arrest is actually not far from truth in many places: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizen%27s_arrest#United_Stat...

[Frondo]

Former private security guard here: in our training, we were told that we, as private citizens, could "arrest" someone, if you're willing to sign your name to an arrest warrant. You'd want to have the cops on the way, and be willing to face a false arrest lawsuit for detaining them, so you'd better be really 100% sure you caught them in the act of doing something illegal.

We were also taught it's almost never worth doing this; basically, if someone's shooting people and you're doing an armed job, yes, use your gun to try and stop them or detain them, but if it's just property damage or theft, call the cops and let them do their thing. The risk to you isn't worth it, nor is the risk of a false arrest lawsuit.

[vonmoltke]

I think that hints towards freeopinion's point. You, as a private citizen, should have exactly the same legal liability with respect to false arrest as a police officer.

Then the question is, is such a good idea?

[kevin_thibedeau]

Everyone is allowed to arrest. Police only get that power as an extension of their citizenship.

There was a curious case a few years back of a non-citizen who had been a military police officer and became a civilian cop because nobody checked his documentation. His military activities were perfectly legal but all arrests made as a civilian were invalid.

[freeopinion]

There's also the case of the lady in Florida who pulled the police officer over for speeding.