In the simplest terms, security personnel have no more power to arrest than a normal citizen. Lets deal with this for a second, under Canadian Law a property owner can arrest a person found committing a criminal offence on, or in relation, to their property. An everyday citizen may arrest anyone found committing a indictable offence. Back to our security officer, while on duty he or she is acting as an agent, or on behalf, of the the property owner, and as such he or she may arrest any person found committing a criminal offence on or in relation to that property.
Lets look closely at that last statement.
These are the two circumstances under which a security officer may effect an arrest. Clearly an arrest can only be considered valid if it is legal, in the case of a private security officer we have defined the circumstances where it is legal to make an arrest in the last paragraph. We have determined that these are the only two circumstances where an individual may be deprived of his liberty, as these are the only circumstances where a legal arrest can be effected. Erik Ingerman has extensive experience in security field, having worked in mobile security, alarm monitoring, investigations and loss prevention.