Citizen’s arrests always have sounded pretty silly to me and I wonder if anyone really does them the way they are done in movies: “This is a citizen’s arrest, sir, put your hands behind your back…” Well in Peru, authorities apparently believe that they will be affective in fighting growing street crime, and are making citizen’s arrest part of their official policy. Spain’s 20 Minutos reports:

Starting July 1st, any Peruvian will be able to arrest a criminal, as long as [the criminal] is found carrying a “flagrant crime” and as long as the citizen immediately turns him in to the police, according to a new law approved Thursday in the Peruvian congress.

“Flagrant crime” is defined by the new law as: “When the criminal act is current the perpetrator is discovered, chased and captured immediately.”

According to Living in Peru, citizen’s arrests have been effective in hundreds of cases and “have taken place without any reports of abuse.”

I wonder if this could apply to politicians, too?

Via / 20 Minutos