de-arrested
Another from the Grauniad: Police realised they had the wrong person and de-arrested him.
Quick research leads me to believe that the British constabulary use de-arrest to indicate that the person who had been arrested was released before being taken to a police station, although in the story I linked above, the person was arrested in a police station that doesn’t have cells but released before being transported to a different police station that does have cells, so I guess that kind of counts. Also, it seems that if a person is arrested, transported, and then released without charge, the record of the arrest persists, but if a person is arrested and then de-arrested, it does not. Or something.
My question is whether this is used by US police as well—I have never heard it, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t turning up in police reports. It seems a useful term, and I’d think there would be some similar thing in use. When the police disperse a protest crowd, isn’t it fairly common for them to detain some people as if they were being arrested and then shoo them away home? Does that only happen if the detainee hasn’t been Mirandized yet, such that he or she is not formally under arrest?
Also, given the usage that one is under arrest, if one is de-arrested, does that mean that one gets over it?
Thanks,
-Ed.
