Kemp unveils overhaul of citizen’s arrest law
ATLANTA — Maintaining momentum built last year with the passage of hate crimes legislation, Gov. Brian Kemp on Tuesday unveiled a proposal that will overhaul a Civil Warera law that allows Georgians to arrest someone they suspect of committing a crime.
The citizen’s arrest law came under renewed scrutiny after it was cited by a prosecutor last year to justify not charging the white men police say were involved in the shooting death of a Black man near Brunswick.
Kemp’s proposal, rolled out during a press conference Tuesday, will still allow employees at businesses, security officers, private investigators and weight inspectors to detain someone they believe has committed a crime. The bill, being shepherded through the legislative process by Marietta Republican state Rep. Bert Reeves, would also allow off-duty police officers to make arrests when they are not in their jurisdictions.
The governor’s plan would replace the roughly 150-yearold statute with a version that includes protections for law enforcement officers and private businesses that detain lawbreakers, Kemp officials said, while also addressing concerns from critics who say it has been systemically abused to disproportionately target Black Georgians.
Kemp’s intent is to repeal citizen’s arrest and tailor the new law in a way that would eliminate legal loopholes that could be use to justify vigilantism, his office said.
Marissa Dodson, a lobbyist with the Southern Center for Human Rights, lauded the proposal. She and her organization have worked with lawmakers since at least last summer to repeal the law.
“It is unnecessary, dangerous and has had a central role in perpetuating anti-Black vigilante violence both recently and historically,” she said.
The law gained national attention last year after the death of Ahmaud Arbery, a Black man who was shot to death after being chased by three men who claimed they believed he was a burglar. Local prosecutors initially declined to charge the men, who are white, citing the citizen’s arrest law.
After video of Arbery’s death became public in May and the GBI began to investigate the case, the citizen’s arrest defense was disregarded and all three men were charged with murder. They have pleaded not guilty.
Video of Arbery’s death also spurred lawmakers to pass hate crimes legislation last year after nearly 20 years of attempts to put a law on the books. The law increases the punishment for people who commit crimes against someone based on characteristics such as race, sexual orientation or religion.
Georgia Democrats, the state NAACP and other groups intensified their demands for the repeal of citizen’s arrest laws, as well as a rollback of stand-your-ground rules, shortly after the graphic video of Arbery’s death emerged. Under “stand your ground” laws, someone can say they acted in self-defense and had no duty to retreat during a confrontation with someone else.
Current state law allows any Georgian who believes he has witnessed a crime to arrest the suspected offender if the crime “is committed in his presence or within his immediate knowledge.” If the crime is a felony and the person suspected of committing it is trying to flee, Georgians are allowed to arrest that person “upon reasonable and probable grounds of suspicion.”
In Kemp’s proposal, Georgians who detain someone they suspect of committing a crime must either contact police enforcement within an hour of holding that person or must release them.
Supporters of the current version of the law say an overhaul is unwarranted and that it is rarely used successfully as a defense in court. Voters, meanwhile, are split. A recent Atlanta Journal-Constitution poll found 46% of respondents said they support a repeal of the law and 45% said they did not.
Georgia has had statutes on the books since 1863 that allow residents to take law enforcement into their own hands if they have witnessed a crime and the police aren’t around. The idea dates back to the 13th century.
Critics say the laws are easily abused and no longer necessary with widespread law enforcement protection and 911 service.
It almost gained traction last year. In the closing days of last year’s pandemic-delayed legislative session, Republican leaders quietly worked with Democrats to hash out a compromise that would have scaled back or repealed the citizen’s arrest statute. But the deal unraveled and legislative leaders vowed to go back to the drawing board.
This year’s legislative session opened with a promise by Kemp to revamp the statute during his State of the State address, when he called it an “antiquated law that is ripe for abuse and enables sinister, evil motives.
“We can again send a clear message: Georgia is a state that protects all of its people and fights injustice wherever it is found,” he said.
Since then, his office has consulted with legislative leaders from both parties and advocacy groups to hone the measure.
Georgia NAACP President James Woodall noted that Kemp unveiled the legislation near the one-year anniversary of the death of Arbery, who was killed Feb. 23, 2020.
“The newly introduced bill will have to go through the entire legislative process, but we have full confidence that Gov. Kemp and legislators in both chambers and both parties will be able to make this legislation into law during this session,” he said.