mandatory arrest

Mandatory arrest is a law enforcement policy requiring police to make an arrest when certain conditions are met, regardless of officer discretion or victim preference.

Most commonly applied to domestic violence calls: if officers observe evidence of physical abuse, they must arrest the alleged perpetrator.

The state adopted mandatory arrest laws in the 1990s.

These policies aimed to protect victims who might be pressured not to press charges, though critics argue they sometimes backfire by discouraging victims from calling police at all.