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18 B.U. L. Rev. 606 (1938)
Criminal Law - Suspicious Person Charge - False Imprisonment - Justification

handle is hein.journals/bulr18 and id is 608 raw text is: BOSTON UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW CRIMINAL LAW-SUSPICIOUS PERSON CHARGE--FALSE IMPRISON- M ENT-JUSTIFICATION. The recent arrest of three young boys as suspicious persons, the factual basis for the arrest being merely their presence in an Easter parade,' prompts an inquiry into the legality of such arrests which have hitherto gone unquestioned. False imprisonment is the unlawful and total restraint of a man's freedom of locomotion. Every imprisonment is prima facie wrong and the burden is on the person arresting to justify.2 In Commonwealth v. Gorman,3 decided on common law principles, it is said, A peace officer, in the absence of statute, may arrest without a warrant for a mis- demeanor which (1) involves a breach of the peace (2) is committed in the presence or view of the officer and (3) is still continuing at the time of the arrest or only interrupted, so that the offense and the arrest form part of one transaction. If there is a present criminal offense, the breach of the peace that justifies an arrest without a warrant may be a prospective or anticipated one . .. An officer who sees a person com- mitting a misdemeanor of such a sort that a breach of the peace is likely to follow unless the offender be restrained, need not delay until the harm has been done, nor limit his acts of restraint or detention to those which may be necessary to prevent the expected breach. This case emphasizes the familiar rule that even at common law to arrest without a warrant for a misdemeanor, the misdemeanor must have been committed or is about to be committed plus a breach of the peace. There may or may not be such misdemeanor and breach of the peace when an arrest is made on a suspicious person charge. The cases say that a peace officer is not liable in an action for false imprisonment for an arrest without a warrant of one who is, in his pres- ence, committing a breach of the peace.4 But he may not arrest for a breach of the peace which has subsided prior to the arrest.5 A peace officer is also justified in arresting to prevent a breach of the peace6 or where there is a reasonable apprehension of a renewal thereof.7 Quinn v. Heisel,8 the leading case, said: A threat or other indication of a breach of the peace will not justify an officer in making an arrest unless the facts are such as would warrant the officer in believing an arrest 'The Boston Daily Globe, April 18, page 1. 'Jackson v. Knowlton, 173 Mass. 94, 95. 'Commonwealth v. Gorman, 288 Mass. 294,,297, 8, 9. 'Newhall v. Egan, 28 R. I. 584. Quinn v. Heisell, 40 Mich. 576. 'Knot v. Gay, 1 Root (Conn.) 66. 'Supra, note 5. Supra, note 5.

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