Skip to contentSkip to Search and the menu

Being Arrested

17-A M.R.S. § 15 — arrest without a warrant on probable cause of a Class A, B or C crime, or a lesser one seen happening

An officer may arrest without a warrant anyone the officer has probable cause to believe has committed or is committing murder or any Class A, Class B or Class C crime.

Email

Who handles this in Maine: legal aid programs and the state offices, listed in the Maine directory.

  • For a Class D or Class E crime, a warrantless arrest is for one committed in the officer's presence, meaning the officer's own senses give personal knowledge of facts enough for a prudent officer to believe it is happening or just happened.
  • That arrest is made at the time of the conduct, within a reasonable time after it, or on fresh pursuit.
  • The section lists lesser crimes that allow an arrest on probable cause alone, among them assault, criminal threatening, terrorizing and stalking where the officer believes someone will be hurt otherwise, and those same crimes between family or household members or dating partners.
  • 17-A M.R.S. § 15

Several rules about an arrest come from the Supreme Court of the United States rather than from this state's code. It has held that before questioning a person in custody, officers must warn that the person may remain silent, that anything said can be used against them, and that they have a right to a lawyer, appointed if they cannot afford one; that a person arrested without a warrant is entitled to a prompt decision by a judge on whether there was probable cause; and that officers generally need a warrant to search the data on a phone taken from a person they arrested. Those holdings are a floor: a state's own constitution and statutes can give more protection than they do, never less.

  • Miranda v. Arizona
  • County of Riverside v. McLaughlin
  • Riley v. California
Sources for this section (4)
  1. 17-A M.R.S. § 15 — Warrantless arrests by a law enforcement officer
  2. Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966) — Right to remain silent and to counsel during custodial interrogation
  3. County of Riverside v. McLaughlin, 500 U.S. 44 (1991) — Probable cause review generally within 48 hours of a warrantless arrest
  4. Riley v. California, 573 U.S. 373 (2014) — Police need a warrant to search a phone seized during an arrest

Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed Maine attorney.

From here

Walked through

This section is the long version of a step in one walkthrough. Each one takes the same law one decision at a time, with both sides of the moment written out.