Consequences of being arrested by mistake in the USA

I doubt you can know.

I know that sounds like a wishy-washy answer, but I’m also able to provide the specific reasoning that backs up that answer.

First, I’ve heard of some serious criminals (like mob bosses) who had impeccable records: “not even a parking ticket”. (I presume that they used their wealth/power to get a chauffeur to drive, which kept their own driving record clean.)

Second, based on personal experience: Someone once called the police on me. The situation: I left behind a bag of sack lunches, in a pre-agreed location, where some homeless people would later pick it up. The person who called this in did not know what was in the bag. Concerns could be that it was a terrorist act, or part of distributing drugs. My license plate was recorded. Well, I was driving my dad’s car, so the next day my dad got called by the police. My father informed me of this.

I knew my father scorns the police (in practice, disapproving of how they do their job). However, I wanted to remain on good terms with the local police. (My weekly delivering-food-to-homeless ministry continues to this day.) So I went to the police station to clear up any confusion.

The police officer I spoke with indicated that there was no record of my activity. He said that what likely happened is that an officer responded to the complaint, decided that there was no actionable issue or even an issue that required a permanent record, and so he considered the matter closed. The result is that there was no ongoing record.

If that sort of handling was done in your case, there might be no record whatsoever. (It may be less likely that there was no record, in your case, if multiple officers were dispatched. Still, they might not have bothered to keep your name recorded.)

So, with that background provided, I provide this answer to your first question (“Is this small intervention registered in their files?”) : Evidence indicates the answer is: possibly no. You might not have anything recorded in the files at all.

As for your next question, “Could they register”… Um, sure. They can spend the resources (including time) to make a record of some details, if they desired.

As for your next question: (“Will this” … “impact”), the background of my answer is this: Large organizations, including law enforcement and people protecting national borders, are expanding their use of “big data”. There is substantial efforts to increase the effectiveness of computers that process large amounts of recorded information. The success of such efforts is increasing over time, particularly as (more) organizations are continuing to dump more resources into research on how to keep improving our abilities to use automation to extract details. So, my answer to that is: the chances of this impacting you are increasing over time. (Or, stated conversely: the chances that this would not follow you are decreasing over time.) However, different organizations vary. The chances are the law enforcement of Vancouver, B.C. (which is a big city that is widely recognized Internationally) may be more likely to record things than White Rock, B.C. or Aldergrove B.C. (which are smaller cities). If the law enforcement who approached you were from Sumas, that city is so small that, in the dark, it might not even be recognized as being a city. They’re certainly on a smaller budget, and probably using less sophisticated methods and technologies than U.S. Border Patrol. So it all depends on who you spoke to, and what their processes are like at the exact moment of time. Over time, processes are trending towards increasing the use of recording lots of data so that “big data” automation is more useful.

Of course, even if one branch of law enforcement didn’t capture your information, if you inquire with a different branch of law enforcement then they may have no details. So an answer of “no” may not be very tell-tale.

Finally, I would note that if you inquire with them about what details they have about you specifically, your inquiry could cause a record which might affect things (even if not today, then someday in the future). So you might be best off to not make an inquiry and see what happens. If you don’t get troubled more than average, then your best approach may be to simply conclude that there is probably no record that seems to be actively causing trouble.

You will know when you are arrested in the United States because an officer will say explicitly that, and read you your rights (just like on TV). You may be read your rights before or after you are arrested, but if this did not happen at all, it’s unlikely you were officially arrested.

An arrest also requires a lot of paperwork by the police, so if you were released at the scene and never taken to the police station, it’s unlikely you were officially arrested.

If you want to be sure, you can contact the FBI and ask for your own US criminal record, which includes convictions and arrests anywhere in the US. This costs $18 USD plus fingerprinting fees, and the website currently says that processing time is “13-15 weeks”.

You can also ask the state police in the state in which the incident took place, or contact the local police department. The last of those is likely to be the quickest way to find out, but the FBI record is generally accepted by foreign consulates as proof of your criminal history (or lack thereof).

As for consequences:

Merely being arrested really doesn’t affect your eligibility to enter the US. For that, you would have had to be convicted of a crime of moral turpitude, which is generally fraud, property crime or violent crime.

However, if you were arrested, you do have to disclose the fact that you were arrested, if you are asked to do so on a landing card or by an immigration officer, and tell them the whole silly story. Since this sort of thing tends to make clearing immigration a very lengthy process, you might wish to keep a copy of that FBI record I mentioned earlier, as it may help speed things up.