Sec. 16. A private person may make an arrest—in the following situations: (a) For a felony committed in the private person's presence. (b) If the person to be arrested has committed a felony although not in the private person's presence. (c) If the private person is summoned by a peace officer to assist the officer in making an arrest. (d) If the private person is a merchant, an agent of a merchant, an employee of a merchant, or an independent contractor providing security for a merchant of a store and has reasonable cause to believe that the person to be arrested has violated section 356c or 356d of the Michigan penal code, Act No. 328 of the Public Acts of 1931, being sections 750.356c and 750.356d of the Michigan Compiled Laws, in that store, regardless of whether the violation was committed in the presence of the private person.
Mich. Comp. Laws § 764.16
Arrest by private person; situations
Applied in 32 court decisions — leading case Commonwealth v. Grise (1986)
Most recently applied in 292 Mich. App. 574 - Norris v. City of Lincoln Park Police Officers (March 2011)
1927, Act 175, Eff
How often courts cite this section
Court decisions citing this, by year. The dip in the last several years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so recent citations are undercounted.
Official source: Michigan Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Michigan statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.