Can a store legally detain someone suspected of shoplifting?
Answer:
The answer used to be yes, but around 2022–2023, Georgia eliminated the rule that permitted citizen’s arrests. Loss prevention officers used to rely on that provision to detain people who didn’t want to be detained, but that rule no longer exists in Georgia. Stores shouldn’t be able to detain you because they aren’t licensed or authorized under Georgia law to make arrests — only police officers can do that. The one exception is if the loss prevention officer is POST-certified and holds arrest powers, which is uncommon. If a store detained you or tried to, that detention could be illegal, and anything that followed — including your statement, a confession, or evidence found on you — could potentially be suppressed in court. If you’re in the North Georgia area and this happened to you, give us a call. We can help.
Georgia’s Citizen’s Arrest Law Was Repealed in 2021
In the wake of the Ahmaud Arbery case, Georgia’s legislature repealed its old, broad citizen’s arrest statute, formerly found at O.C.G.A. § 17-4-60, which had allowed private individuals to arrest someone based on reasonable suspicion of a felony. That repeal fundamentally changed what private citizens, including store employees, are legally permitted to do when they suspect someone of a crime.
A Narrower Shopkeeper’s Detention Privilege Still Exists
The same legislation that repealed the general citizen’s arrest rule specifically preserved a narrower privilege for merchants. Under O.C.G.A. § 51-7-60, a merchant or a merchant’s employee, with reasonable cause, may detain a suspected shoplifter on the premises, in a reasonable manner and for a reasonable time, for the purpose of questioning or summoning a law enforcement officer. That means a store detaining someone isn’t automatically unlawful — it depends heavily on how it was done.
Detention Isn’t the Same as Arrest
Even where this privilege applies, it only covers a temporary investigative hold — it doesn’t give store employees the power to formally arrest anyone. Only police officers can make an actual arrest. A store’s role, at most, is to hold someone briefly and reasonably until officers arrive, not to take on police authority themselves.
What Makes a Detention Unreasonable
Georgia courts have made clear that both the manner and the length of a detention matter. In Jackson v. KMart Corp., 851 F. Supp. 469 (M.D. Ga. 1994), a federal court applying Georgia law found that evidence of “gratuitous and unnecessary indignities” during a detention could defeat the shopkeeper’s privilege and support a claim that the detention was unreasonable. A store following its own internal guidelines isn’t automatically proof that a detention was reasonable, either — courts look at what actually happened, not just store policy.
Why an Unlawful Detention Can Matter to a Criminal Case
If a detention went beyond what the law actually permits — no reasonable cause to begin with, excessive force or humiliation, or holding someone far longer than necessary — that opens the door to challenging what came out of it. Statements made during an unlawful detention, and evidence gathered because of it, can potentially be excluded from a criminal case built on top of that detention.
What to Do Next
If you’re in the North Georgia area and this happened to you, give us a call. We can help.
