Page:1959 North Dakota Session Laws.pdf/234

234

To exempt from civil or criminal liability any peace officer, merchant or merchant's employee who takes into custody or detains any person who he has probable cause to believe has committed larceny of goods held for sale.

Be It Enacted by the Legislative Assembly of the State of North Dakota:

§ 1. Shoplifting; Arresting Person Exempt from Liability.)

1. A peace officer, or a merchant, or a merchant's employee who has probable cause for believing that goods held for sale by the merchant have been unlawfully taken by a person and that he can recover them by taking the person into custody, may, for the purpose of attempting to effect such recovery, take the person into custody and detain him in a reasonable manner for a reasonable length of time. Such taking into custody and detention by a peace officer, merchant, or merchant's employee shall not render such peace officer, merchant, merchant's employee criminally or civilly liable for false arrest, false imprisonment, or unlawful detention.

2. Any peace officer may arrest without warrant any person he has probable cause for believing has committed larceny in retail or wholesale establishments.

3. A merchant or a merchant's employee who causes such arrest as provided for in subsection 1 of this section of a person for larceny of goods held for sale shall not be criminally or civilly liable for false arrest or false imprisonment where the merchant or merchant's employee has probable cause for believing that the person arrested committed larceny of goods held for sale.

Approved March 14, 1959,