republic-os/legislation/us/states/de/153/hb-153.md

type, title, description, jurisdiction, legislature, session, identifier, citation, classification, subjects, status, primary_sponsors, version_count, action_count, vote_count, first_action, last_action, source, source_identifier, source_url, source_hash, vintage, source_snapshot, retrieved_at, confidence, tags

type	title	description	jurisdiction	legislature	session	identifier	citation	classification	subjects	status	primary_sponsors	version_count	action_count	vote_count	first_action	last_action	source	source_identifier	source_url	source_hash	vintage	source_snapshot	retrieved_at	confidence	tags
Bill	AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ARREST AND DETENTION.	This Act prohibits arrest or detention by any person who does not have explicit statutory authority to carry out an arrest or detention. The intent of this provision is to eliminate any doubt that a “citizen’s arrest” is not permitted in Delaware. Peace officers have statutory authority to make arrests, as do federal law enforcement agents and out-of-state police under some circumstances. There is also limited authority to detain a person suspected of shoplifting provided to a merchant, store supervisor, agent or employee of a merchant in § 840 of Title 11; to detain a person suspected of unlawful recording by a motion picture theater owner, supervisor, agent or employee under § 858 of Title 11; and to detain a person suspected of unlawful acts with a video lottery machine by a video lottery agent or any of its officers, employees or agents under § 1474 of Title 11.	us/states/de	Delaware General Assembly	153	HB 153	Delaware HB 153 (153)	bill		enacted	Bryant L. Richardson Claire Snyder-Hall Cyndie Romer Dave G. Lawson David L. Wilson Eric Morrison Josue O Ortega Mara Gorman Marie Pinkney Sarah McBride Sean M. Lynn Spiros Mantzavinos	1	9	2	2025-05-01	2025-07-14	openstates	ocd-bill/aaa435ce-fc65-431c-982a-44e349a1b334	https://legis.delaware.gov/BillDetail?LegislationId=142166	99d6a904b2d3cf25e64524079415eee7918b6a4b48a18fcaa015fb74a1837c68	2026-07-01	https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump	2026-07-06	reported	legislation bill us-de

Delaware HB 153 (153) — AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO ARREST AND DETENTION.

This Act prohibits arrest or detention by any person who does not have explicit statutory authority to carry out an arrest or detention. The intent of this provision is to eliminate any doubt that a “citizen’s arrest” is not permitted in Delaware. Peace officers have statutory authority to make arrests, as do federal law enforcement agents and out-of-state police under some circumstances. There is also limited authority to detain a person suspected of shoplifting provided to a merchant, store supervisor, agent or employee of a merchant in § 840 of Title 11; to detain a person suspected of unlawful recording by a motion picture theater owner, supervisor, agent or employee under § 858 of Title 11; and to detain a person suspected of unlawful acts with a video lottery machine by a video lottery agent or any of its officers, employees or agents under § 1474 of Title 11.

Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. HA 1 to HB 153 (committee substitute) — source

Votes

• SM — 24–12 (pass) · lower
• SM — 17–4 (pass) · upper

Sponsors

• Bryant L. Richardson — primary (person)
• Claire Snyder-Hall — primary (person)
• Cyndie Romer — primary (person)
• Dave G. Lawson — primary (person)
• David L. Wilson — primary (person)
• Eric Morrison — primary (person)
• Josue O Ortega — primary (person)
• Mara Gorman — primary (person)
• Marie Pinkney — primary (person)
• Sarah McBride — primary (person)
• Sean M. Lynn — primary (person)
• Spiros Mantzavinos — primary (person)

Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

• 2025-05-01 Introduced and Assigned to Judiciary Committee in House introduction, referral-committee
• 2025-05-21 Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in House with 4 Favorable, 2 On Its Merits committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2025-06-17 Amendment HA 1 to HB 153 - Passed In House by Voice Vote amendment-passage
• 2025-06-17 Passed By House. Votes: 24 YES 12 NO 5 ABSENT passage
• 2025-06-17 Assigned to Judiciary Committee in Senate introduction, referral-committee
• 2025-06-25 Reported Out of Committee (Judiciary) in Senate with 1 Favorable, 3 On Its Merits committee-passage, committee-passage-favorable
• 2025-06-30 Lifted From Table in Senate
• 2025-06-30 Passed By Senate. Votes: 17 YES 4 NO passage
• 2025-07-14 Signed by Governor executive-signature

Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot 2026-07-01; origin ocd-bill/aaa435ce-fc65-431c-982a-44e349a1b334. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Delaware legislature records).