False imprisonment

False imprisonment happens when someone deliberately stops another person from moving freely in a space, without legal right, a valid reason, or the person's consent. You don't need to be physically held or tied up for it to count. The claim can come from actions by private individuals or from wrongful detention by the government. If police detain someone unlawfully, proving false imprisonment can be grounds for a writ of habeas corpus. In common law, this is both a crime and a civil wrong.

For false imprisonment, "imprisonment" means the person is prevented from leaving a specific location or bounded area because of a wrongful intentional act—like using force, threats, coercion, or abusing authority. But not every unwanted detention qualifies. Accidental detention doesn't count, because false imprisonment requires intent. Also, the law sometimes allows someone to detain another person against their will. A legally authorized detention isn't false imprisonment. For instance, a parent or legal guardian stopping a child from leaving the house usually wouldn't be considered false imprisonment.

In the United States, police can detain someone if they have probable cause that a crime happened and the person was involved, or if they have reasonable suspicion that the person has, is, or is about to commit a crime. To win a false imprisonment case, a plaintiff must prove three things: the defendant willfully detained them in a bounded area, the detention was without consent, and there was no lawful authority for the arrest.

Many U.S. states recognize a "shopkeeper's privilege." This lets store employees use reasonable force to hold a suspected shoplifter on the property for a short time, if they have good reason to believe the person stole or tried to steal. The goal is to check if the suspect is shoplifting and, if so, to recover the stolen item. This privilege is narrower than a police officer's arrest power. The shopkeeper can only hold the person briefly. If the detention is unreasonably long, uses excessive force, or the police aren't called within a reasonable time, it can become false imprisonment and lead to damages. In places without this privilege, the detention must meet the rules for a citizen's arrest.

The shopkeeper's privilege exists because shopkeepers need some protection when dealing with suspected thieves. Without it, they'd have to either let suspects walk away or risk a false arrest by acting on suspicion. For the privilege to apply, the shopkeeper must: investigate on or very near the store premises, have reasonable cause to believe the person was shoplifting, use only reasonable force, and not hold the person longer than needed to gather facts.

In the Colorado case *Enright v. Groves*, a woman sued a police officer for false imprisonment after being arrested for not showing her driver's license. She was in her car when the officer approached her about an unleashed dog. She was arrested for failing to produce the license. She won her false imprisonment claim, even though she lost the dog-leash case. The court said the officer lacked legal authority to arrest her for not showing the license, since that act itself was legal—unlike the leash violation.

In a Clark County, Indiana case, Destiny Hoffman was jailed for 154 days without a hearing to check the validity of the sanction and without a lawyer. A judge's order had called for a 48-hour stay pending drug evaluation and treatment, "until further order of the court." After a motion from the prosecutor, a special judge ordered Hoffman released, calling the incarceration "a big screw up."

In a Louisiana case, a pharmacist and his pharmacy were found liable for false imprisonment by a trial court. They delayed a patient and told her to wait while secretly calling the police because they suspected her prescription was fake. Police arrested her. While she was in jail, they confirmed with her doctor that the prescription was real and meant for her. She sued and won $20,000 in damages. An appeals court reversed that decision, ruling that the elements of false imprisonment weren't met.

In the United Kingdom, false imprisonment is part of the legal category "trespass to the person," along with battery and assault.