unarrest

From un- +‎ arrest.

unarrest (third-person singular simple present unarrests, present participle unarresting, simple past and past participle unarrested)

1. (transitive) To release (an arrested person) from custody.
   • 2010, Gabrielle M. Maxwell, Allison Morris, Family, Victims and Culture: Youth Justice in New Zealand, page 33:

     She was swearing at the police who were trying to deal with a domestic incident. I had to break up the situation, the harassment was interfering with them dealing with the original fight. It was decided to unarrest her when we realised her age.

   • 2015, “Immigration Minister Peter Dutton said two teenage brothers arrested while trying to leave Australia to fight with ISIS were ‘saved’”, in News.com.au:

     They were subsequently unarrested and released into their parents’ custody on Friday evening.

unarrest (plural unarrests)

1. The act of cancelling an arrest.
   • 1994, Queensland. Parliament. Legislative Assembly, Parliamentary Papers - Volume 3, page 223:

     However, it has been suggested to the Committee that police will not utilise this power because there will be a fear of the "unarrest" being used as evidence of a wrongful arrest.

   • 2017, Matthew Knouff, An Outsider's Guide to Antifa, page 156:

     Several unarrests, and only two total successful arrests, occurred at the Navy Memorial.

   • 2020, Hannah L. F. Cooper, Mindy Thompson Fullilove, From Enforcers to Guardians:

     These long stops essentially consist of a form of illegal, undocumented arrest, an investigation, and an “unarrest”—a wholly unconstitutional process.

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