Why can I make a citizen’s arrest?

After seeing someone make an illegal left turn, Mike joked to his daughter that they should do a citizen’s arrest. She had no idea what he was talking about, and now Mike wants to know: wait, are citizen’s arrests actually a real-life thing, or just something he saw on TV? And if they are real, how do they work? And what do they say about crime and policing in our country? This week on Explain It to Me, host Jonquilyn Hill talks to Stanford Law School professor David Sklansky to find out. He’s the author of the new book Criminal Justice in Divided America.

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Credits:

Jonquilyn Hill, host

Patrick Boyd, engineer

Kim Eggleston, fact checker

Carla Javier, supervising producer

Jorge Just, editor

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