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Md. Code, Public Safety § 13A-203

This is the official text of Md. Code, Public Safety § 13A-203, part of Maryland’s Code, Public Safety — governs police, fire, and emergency services.

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§13A–203.

Official statutory text

(a) (1) An enlisted member may be ordered into arrest or confinement by a commissioned officer by an order, oral or written, delivered in person or through other persons subject to this title.

(2) A commanding officer may authorize warrant officers or noncommissioned officers to order enlisted members of the commanding officer’s command or subject to the commanding officer’s authority into arrest or confinement.

(b) (1) A commissioned officer, a warrant officer, or a civilian subject to this title or to trial thereunder may be ordered into arrest or confinement only by a commanding officer to whose authority the person is subject, by an order, oral or written, delivered in person or by another commissioned officer.

(2) The authority to order such persons into arrest or confinement may not be delegated.

(c) No person may be ordered into arrest or confinement except for probable cause.

(d) This section does not limit the authority of persons authorized to apprehend offenders to secure the custody of an alleged offender until proper authority may be notified.

Status: in_force · Read it on the official government site

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About this page: Statute text is reproduced from official government publishers via the Open US Law dataset (Vaquill AI, snapshot v2026.08, CC BY 4.0). Primary legislative text like this is public domain under the government-edicts doctrine (Georgia v. Public.Resource.Org, 2020). We link every section back to its official source so you can verify it independently.