Reasonable and probable grounds (RPGs). This is the common legal standard a police officer must meet to utilize authorities for arrest and seizure (and subsequently in charging someone).
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There must be reasonableness and a probability that can be articulated in justifying an officer’s related actions.
An officer cannot arbitrarily carry out duties without an authority to back their actions. So, if someone was to tell you they were arrested for no reason, this is quite likely inaccurate as it is required there is a reason.
For criminal offences, Section 495 of the Criminal Code provides the authority and limitations, for a Peace Officer to arrest someone without a warrant. There are also Warrants for Arrest but that will be a topic covered in the future.
Section 495 also provides authority to arrest someone the officer believes is about to commit an offence.
There are many ways this section can branch out as it is not a stand-alone section. While it provides the authority to arrest a person, it does not specify anything in regards to what the specific offence might be. Specific offences are addressed in other sections of the Criminal Code and have their own requirements.
Several other Acts, both federal and provincial, also provide authorities for arrest and seizures. Some of those will be future topics.
These Acts also have specific requirements before the authority is afforded to the officer, but they also have limitations. This column’s articles will tend to build on each other as that is very often the progression of how law enforcement is applied.
Police officers gain experience to be able to determine what are reasonable and probable grounds so they can apply these intelligently and quickly in various situations.
A solid understanding of various offences is key to be able to apply section 495.
Each offence has ‘elements of the offence’ which is specific conditions that are required to meet for the offence to be deemed as committed or intended. An easy explanation is for the criminal offence of assault which is section 266 of the Criminal Code.
The elements that must be met for an assault to have been committed is: intentionally applying force to someone, either directly or indirectly and without their consent.
Within the example of assault, what would be reasonable and probable grounds? The answer is not always obvious and clear-cut depending on evidence and the credibility of that evidence.
An easy example would be if an officer firsthand observed one person sucker punch another.
The sucker punch part covers the ‘without consent’ element while the punch is the intentional application of force. With the officer providing firsthand observation evidence, this example easily meets the criteria for arrest.
In this example, as it is, would not guarantee a guilty verdict in court as many other factors can come to light and this is why an investigation would still be required. As with many things policing related, it often isn’t cut-and-dry.
– Staff Sgt. Jerry Nutbown, is the NCO in charge of the Lloydminster RCMP detachment’s General Investigation Section. Stay tuned for future articles from the Lloydminster RCMP.
This column was originally published in the Sept. 26, 2024, edition of the Meridian Source.
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