How much time do police have to decide on a charge?

Answer 1

As long as you are not under arrest and/or in custody, there is no time limit on the decision as to what offense you might be charged with.

Customarily law enforcement either knows in advance what they are arresting you for (e.g.: warrant), or they apprehend you on the scene, or shortly thereafter, and they KNOW what offense you committed.

If there is some kind of delay, it is usually because the investigators are conferring with the Prosecutor's Office. The bottom line is, that it is NOT the police who decide what you will be charged with in court, it is the prosecutor's decision.

More on this:

The state DOES have a time limit on deciding what to charge a person. It's called a statute of limitations. These statutes state the time within which charges must be brought by the state against anyone or the charges will be barred. Some crimes like murder, have no time limit; however the state may not knowingly hold back such a charge hoping to prejudice the defense by the passage of time.

Sometimes even an arresting officer is unsure of what crime to charge a person with. This would not apply wherethere is an arrest warant, because the crime has already been charged. However, a person might be arrested for , say, bank robbery, at the scene, but then later after investigation, it comes out that he committed assault or kidnapping during the robbery. Those crimes would have to be added to the original charges, not only before the lapse of a statute of limitations, but also before the trial on the bank robbery. When a person commits several offenses in one set of circumstances, the state cannot try him on each charge one at a time.

For purposes of an answer to this question, it isn't completely true that the police do not make the charge. Police do make the charges in minor matters such as traffic, petty disorderly persons or other minor offenses that don't require an indictment. Police write tickets, which are actually criminal complaints, all the time for things like drunk driving, speeding and reckless driving, which are all quasi-criminal charges. Sometimes charges like simple assault are brought by police by way of complaint, i.e. tickets.

Minor criminal charges may be made by police by issuing tickets and tickets are not issued by prosecutors.

For charges like these, there will probably be a short time period, based on the appropriate state's laws and/or court rules.

Common situations in which the police bring charges at a later date are traffic charges. Police might arrest a driver for drunk driving and charge him with it, but after further investigation they find open liquor bottles a and small amount of marijuana in the car. The police will have time to decide to bring additional charges, i.e., issue more tickets with the time period again being limited by the appropriate state's laws and /or court rules.