united-states police
Can a policeman be charged with &quot;not arresting someone who should have been arrested&quot;?
<h1>Background</h1>
<p>False arrest, false imprisonment and the like are crimes that do exist.  But is the opposite also true?  That is, can a law enforcement officer be charged with not arresting who should have been arrested.</p>
<p>Assume that the probable cause and reasonable suspicion standards have been met, and the person who should have been arrested did indeed commit a crime and the cop knew.</p>

<h2>Not in the US</h2>
<p>In the US there is no legal duty to arrest someone, even if a police office actually witnesses a crime. I understand that this rule is also followed in most common-law countries.</p>
<p>In some cases a police officer who does not make an arrest may have violated department policy, and may be disciplined or dismissed. But such an officer cannot be charged with a crime, nor subject to a civil suit, unless there is a civil rights violation.</p>
<p>If there were a duty to arrest, and if it applied to all minor crimes for which an arrest is legally allowed, the number of arrests and the burden on the judicial system would be significantly increased. Perhaps more importantly people who considered that they had done nothing criminal would be much more likely to be arrested, and political pressure might well force a change back to something like the current system.</p>
<p>I understand that in civil-law systems there is sometimes a dusty to arrest a known or strongly suspected criminal. I am not sure what the limits or parameters of this duty are, or how the practicalities are handled.</p>

<p>It probably depends on the state. E.g. Ohio code <a href="https://codelibrary.amlegal.com/codes/reading/latest/reading_oh/0-0-0-54647" rel="nofollow noreferrer">has</a>:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>§ 606.19  DERELICTION OF DUTY.
(A)   No law enforcement officer shall negligently do any of the following:
(1)   Fail to serve a lawful warrant without delay.
(2)   Fail to prevent or halt the commission of an offense <strong>or to apprehend an offender, when it is in the law enforcement officer’s power to do so alone or with available assistance</strong>. [...]</p>
<p>(F)   Whoever violates this section is guilty of dereliction of duty, <strong>a misdemeanor of the second degree</strong>.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>I suspect that charges under laws like this are rather uncommon though (perhaps because of the need to prove negligence). It's much more common for the policeperson to be (just) fired.</p>
<p>But during the Floyd protests in Ohio, some policemen <a href="https://abcnews.go.com/US/ohio-police-officers-charged-assault-dereliction-duty-george/story?id=78177062" rel="nofollow noreferrer">were</a> charged with dereliction of duty. That also <a href="https://www.cleveland19.com/2021/01/22/two-cleveland-police-officers-arrested-dereliction-duty-civil-rights-violation-among-charges/" rel="nofollow noreferrer">happened</a> in an unrelated case in Cleveland. I haven't followed the cases tough, to see if there were convictions. From a quick look, these weren't simple charges of dereliction of duty, but the dereliction charge was added &quot;on top&quot; of different ones, like e.g. when the policeperson falsified a report.</p>
<p>Almost all such cases on a quick google search are from Ohio (I did find <a href="https://www.browardpalmbeach.com/news/fort-lauderdale-cop-fired-for-dereliction-of-duty-6464994" rel="nofollow noreferrer">one</a> in Florida, but it involved the policeman refusing to answer a call--and no charges were filed), so perhaps similarly precise laws don't exist in other US states. There are broad/vague statues on dereliction of duty of officials in some other states, but seemingly not as precise on law enforcement as in Ohio.</p>
<p>In other cases like West Virginia's Code <a href="http://www.wvlegislature.gov/wvcode/chapterentire.cfm?chap=08&amp;art=14&amp;section=3" rel="nofollow noreferrer">§8-14-3</a>, removal from office (for &quot;official misconduct&quot;) is the only recourse specified in the law:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The mayor and police officers of every municipality and any municipal sergeant shall aid in the enforcement of the criminal laws of the state within the municipality, independently of any charter provision or any ordinance or lack of an ordinance with respect thereto, and to cause the arrest of, or arrest, any offender and take him or her before a magistrate to be dealt with according to the law. Failure on the part of any such official or officer to discharge any duty imposed by the provisions of this section is official misconduct for which he or she may be removed from office.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In general, conducting cross-state law comparison/research in the US is a nightmare...</p>
<p>And comments about other common law jurisdiction in other answer aren't entirely correct. Since 2015 the UK has <a href="https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2015/2/part/1/crossheading/offences-involving-police-or-prison-officers/enacted?view=plain" rel="nofollow noreferrer">an explicit law</a> that  punishes &quot;improper exercise of police powers&quot;, which is pretty broadly construed, including <em>failure</em> to exercise the powers (to the benefit of a 3d party) when the &quot;a reasonable person&quot; would have expected otherwise. I'm not aware of any prosecutions under this law for failure to exercise though. (The more general common law offence of &quot;misconduct in public office&quot; also <a href="http://dx.doi.org/10.21153/dlr2014vol19no1art218" rel="nofollow noreferrer">applies</a> to 'nonfeasance' acts.
Actually, the common law offence <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/public-leaders-network/2016/feb/09/law-confuse-police-misconduct-criminal-offence" rel="nofollow noreferrer">was invoked</a> in a case of inaction by police, circa 2013-2016.)</p>
<p>Somewhat related, <a href="https://content.next.westlaw.com/Browse/Home/CivilRightsLegalMaterialsNews/PoliceConductFailuretoIntervene?transitionType=Default&amp;contextData=(sc.Default)&amp;firstPage=true" rel="nofollow noreferrer">&quot;failure to intervene&quot;</a> is fairly limited in US federal-level law/jurisprudence, basically limited to failing to prevent a civil rights offense by another police [or similar] officer:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>The framework for establishing a successful Section 1983 claim of failure to intervene may vary slightly by jurisdiction, however the premise is substantially the same. In the Seventh Circuit, “an officer who is present and fails to intervene to prevent other law enforcement officers from infringing the constitutional rights of citizens is liable under § 1983 if that officer had reason to know: (1) that excessive force was being used, (2) that a citizen has been unjustifiably arrested, or (3) that any constitutional violation has been committed by a law enforcement official; and the officer had a realistic opportunity to intervene to prevent the harm from occurring.” Yang v. Hardin, 37 F.3d 282, 285 (7th Cir. 1994).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>(Worth recalling here perhaps that that section 1983 is a civil recourse to begin with, not grounds for criminal charges.)</p>
<p>Additionally there are some cases where police was successfully sued under section 1983 for failing to enforce restraining orders related to domestic violence, the first of these was <em>Thurman v. City of Torrington</em>. Subsequently a number of
states have <a href="https://scholarship.law.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1538&amp;context=jchlp" rel="nofollow noreferrer">passed laws</a> that have made police arrests mandatory in domestic violence and restraining order cases. At least 23 US states now <a href="https://hilo.hawaii.edu/campuscenter/hohonu/volumes/documents/MandatoryArrestsADouble-EdgedSword.pdf" rel="nofollow noreferrer">have</a> these. But for the purpose of your question... I have no idea what the punishement for the officer failing to follow such laws would be. I guess just dismissal from job in most (in not all) states, but that's just a guess.</p>
<p>In some states like Washington (which <a href="https://www.domesticviolenceseattle.com/washingtons-mandatory-arrest-law" rel="nofollow noreferrer">has</a> such a mandatory-arrest domestic violence law -- RCW 10.31.100(2)(c)), failure of a public official to do their duties is automatically a misdemeanor (under RCW 42.20.100), but I'm not aware of cases where this provision was used when police didn't implement mandatory arrests.</p>

<p>Since there are 50 states in addition to numerous territories which make up this country I will answer this as it applies to California, but will state this is also the general rule. When a statute states an office &quot;shall&quot; arrest a person, then yes, it could be a criminal offense if the officer does not arrest a person. The most typical circumstance which invokes this ministerial duty is where there is evidence of domestic violence. However, the authority to arrest a person for virtually most crimes is given to the discretion of the officer where he/she &quot;may&quot; arrest a person.</p>
