A peace officer may, without a warrant, arrest a person if the officer has reasonable cause to believe that the person is committing or has committed a misdemeanor or a petty misdemeanor, and the officer has reasonable ground to believe that person cannot be arrested later or may cause injury to himself or herself or others or loss or damage to property unless immediately arrested.
R.I. Gen. Laws § 12-7-3
Arrest without warrant for misdemeanor or petty misdemeanor
Applied in 4 court decisions — leading case Atwater v. City of Lago Vista (2001)
Most recently applied in Deaton v. Town of Barrington (May 2024)
G.L. 1909, ch. 354, § 75; P.L. 1915, ch. 1261, § 1; G.L. 1923, ch. 407, § 75; G.L. 1938, ch. 625, § 68; P.L. 1941, ch. 982, § 1; G.L. 1956, § 12-7-3; P.L. 1977, ch. 71, § 1.
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: Rhode Island General Assembly. Reproduced from public-domain Rhode Island statutes; confirm against the official source for the current text. Not legal advice.