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ORS 162.315

Applied in 206 court decisions — leading case Tennessee v. Garner (1985)

Most recently applied in 347 Or. App. 860 - State v. Deleon (March 2026)

1971 c.743 §206; 1989 c.877 §1; 1997 c.749 §3; 2005 c.668 §2

How often courts cite this section

1976198019902000201020202026140
citing decisions per year

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.

(1) A person commits the crime of resisting arrest if the person intentionally resists a person known by the person to be a peace officer or parole and probation officer in making an arrest.

(2) As used in this section:

(a) “Arrest” has the meaning given that term in ORS 133.005 and includes, but is not limited to, the booking process.

(b) “Parole and probation officer” has the meaning given that term in ORS 181A.355.

(c) “Resists” means the use or threatened use of violence, physical force or any other means that creates a substantial risk of physical injury to any person and includes, but is not limited to, behavior clearly intended to prevent being taken into custody by overcoming the actions of the arresting officer. The behavior does not have to result in actual physical injury to an officer. Passive resistance does not constitute behavior intended to prevent being taken into custody.

(3) It is no defense to a prosecution under this section that the peace officer or parole and probation officer lacked legal authority to make the arrest or book the person, provided the officer was acting under color of official authority.

(4) Resisting arrest is a Class A misdemeanor.

Official source: Oregon State Legislature. Reproduced from public-domain Oregon statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.