Fire Technology (FT) 152 Legal Aspects of Emergency Services Practice Test

The key idea is that firefighters are not sworn law enforcement officers, so they don’t have official arrest powers as part of their job. They’re trained to respond to emergencies and protect life and property, not to enforce criminal law. If a firefighter ever restrains someone, it would be as a private citizen—in other words, in the same capacity as any ordinary person who might detain someone briefly under the concept of a citizen’s arrest and then rely on police to take over. That’s why the correct comparison is to a private citizen.

Police officers have full arrest authority; security guards may have limited powers depending on jurisdiction or special authority; court clerks do not have arrest powers.