EMNofSeattle
Regular Member
Hmm. Never heard that before. Educate me, please. I thought it had to be someone in authority at the place of business. Perhaps I'm wrong. Does it differ from state to state?
well I can't speak for other states, in the States who's laws I know, Washington, Idaho, and Montana, there is no requirement in law for the trespass request to be from the owner or a manager, only from someone who is an agent of the owner, and employees are an agent of the owner. plus the term "manager" "boss" "supervisor" are not legally defined in criminal statutes. unless the term in law is defined it's up to the employer who's a "manager" if the manager goes on lunch break and hands her keys to th cashier and says "I'm off to dennys store's yours" that woman is now an acting manager.
and if an employee calls the police the cops are not going to break open store policies and enforce store policy, if a store employee claims to have authority the cops will treat the trespass complaint like they do have such authority. if they don't that's a civil matter regarding the store and cops don't enforce civil matters. even if an employee doesn't have such authority, will a manager intervene on your behalf if you get cited for trespass if the clerk and police officer both tell them that the person trespass was armed with a gun and didn't follow requests and was argumentative?
you have no way of knowing who truly has such authority. security guards almost always do, but any other employee can.
so if I'm asked to leave, I would leave immediately and then call the store and ask to speak to a manager to clear it up. there's too many things that can go wrong with lingering on other's private property after being asked to leave. leave first, then call the manager, being a reasonable person will increase the odds the manager will act in your favor when you complain.