FALSE ARREST
A TORT (a civil wrong) that consists of an unlaw-
ful restraint of an individual’s personal liberty or
freedom of movement by another purporting to
act according to the law.
The term false arrest is sometimes used
interchangeably with that of the tort of FALSE
IMPRISONMENT, and a false arrest is one method
of committing a false imprisonment. A false
arrest must be perpetrated by one who asserts
that he or she is acting pursuant to legal author-
ity, whereas a false imprisonment is any unlaw-
ful confinement. For example, if a sheriff arrests
a person without any PROBABLE CAUSE or rea-
sonable basis, the sheriff has committed the
torts of false arrest and false imprisonment. The
sheriff has acted under the assumption of legal
authority to deprive a person unlawfully of his
or her liberty of movement. If, however, a driver
refuses to allow a passenger to depart from a
vehicle, the driver has committed the tort of
false imprisonment because he or she unlawfully
restrains freedom of movement. The driver
has not committed false arrest, however, since
he or she is not claiming to act under legal
authority. A person who knowingly gives police
false information in order to have someone
