Walk It Through: The Evaluation Hold
Custody without a warrant, a physician within 12 hours, and the 48 hour limit.
A neighbor has called about someone in crisis, and a peace officer arrives without a warrant.
Two things a person in this spot might do. Picking one shows what the law says about it.
One emergency detention by a peace officer. Protective custody orders, commitment hearings, the rights the facility explains, and what makes a facility appropriate are not worked through here.
A practice walkthrough, not a prediction of how any real one will go. Legal information, not legal advice.
Words this turns on
Terms with a legal meaning that is narrower than the everyday one. Each links to the definition and the authority behind it.
- Emergency detentionCustody without a warrant, taken by a peace officer who believes a person has a mental illness and, because of it, there is a substantial risk of serious harm to the person or others, with no time to get a warrant first. A physician examines the person as soon as possible within 12 hours after the person is apprehended.
- MagistrateThe judicial officer an arrested person goes before without unnecessary delay and no later than 48 hours after the arrest, who tells the person the accusation and the rights that follow, among them the right to counsel and the right to remain silent.
- Search warrantA written order issued by a magistrate to a peace officer. None may issue unless sufficient facts first satisfy the magistrate that probable cause exists, on a sworn affidavit, and most search warrants are executed within three whole days.
- StalkingKnowingly engaging, on more than one occasion and as part of the same course of conduct directed at a specific person, in conduct that is harassment or threatening, that causes fear and would do so to a reasonable person. It is a felony of the third degree.