Consequences of being arrested by mistake in the USA
Situation
Last summer, I went for a hitchhiking trip in the USA. Someone I did not know invited me to stay in the small cabin behind their house while they were absent. A neighbour saw me in the garden, freaked out and called the police. The police came and arrested me (guns in hands), they read my rights, checked my ID and asked me various questions. I did behave well, the whole thing was actually pretty funny. Everything was recorded on camera. I was NOT taken to the police station.
After 15 minutes, they managed to call the owner (I did not know her number, I barely knew her first name) and confirmed that I was allowed to sleep in the cabin. The police officers took the handcuffs off and wished me a good night!
Question
- Is this small intervention registered in their files?
- Could they register that I am the "kind of guy" who tend to put himself in weird situations or something?
- Will this event have any impact on my probability of re-entering the USA as a tourist or of receiving a future visa in the USA?
Extra-info
My passport is Swiss and I am now living in Vancouver, Canada. I was a student (student visa) in the USA (Alaska) a few years ago.
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Can you be arrested by mistake?
False arrest, sometimes known as false imprisonment or wrongful arrest, occurs when someone wrongfully holds you against your will or takes you into custody. Both private persons and law enforcement agents can commit this crime when they act beyond or outside of the scope of their authority.Can you get compensation for being wrongly arrested?
The answer is yes. You may also be eligible for a false imprisonment compensation claim. Of all the complaints against the police that are possible, an unlawful arrest is one of the most common.Is it possible that the wrong person was arrested or convicted?
An arrest is deemed wrongful when a person is detained and wrongfully convicted by police without proper legal authority.Texas cop tackles, arrests black woman who had called for help
Sources: Stack Exchange - This article follows the attribution requirements of Stack Exchange and is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Images: Tima Miroshnichenko, Kindel Media, Kindel Media, Tara Winstead