Are law enforcement officers obliged to apprehend a subject committing a crime at the earliest possible opportunity?
<p>Inspired in part by <a href="https://law.stackexchange.com/q/3643/58">this question</a>: if a person is committing crimes of increasing severity, are law enforcement personnel obliged to apprehend them at the earliest opportunity? Specifically, are they obliged to prevent a crime at the stage where it is a <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_(criminal)" rel="nofollow noreferrer">conspiracy</a>, or <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attempt" rel="nofollow noreferrer">attempt</a>, to commit it?</p>

<p>If so, in what circumstances?</p>

<p>For the sake of simplicity, let's consider only US cases.</p>

<p>The circuits all over the place on this one but in short, no, <strong>police are not obliged to apprehend a suspect at the earliest opportunity</strong>.</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>It is within the discretion of the police to decide whether delaying
  the arrest of the suspect will help ensnare co-conspirators, as
  exemplified by this case, will give the police greater understanding
  of the nature of the criminal enterprise, <strong>or merely will allow the
  suspect enough "rope to hang himself</strong>."</p>
</blockquote>

<p><em>U.S. V. Garcia</em> 79 F.3d 74 (7th Cir. 1996)</p>

<p>See also  <em>Hoffa v. United States</em> 385 U.S. 293 (1966)</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>A suspect has no constitutional right to be arrested when the police
  have probable cause.</p>
  
  <p>The police are not required to guess, at their peril, the precise
  moment at which they have probable cause to arrest a suspect, risking
  a violation of the Fourth Amendment if they act too soon, and a
  violation of the Sixth Amendment if they wait too long. Law
  enforcement officers are under no constitutional duty to call a halt
  to a criminal investigation the moment they have the minimum evidence
  to establish probable cause, a quantum of evidence which may fall far
  short of the amount necessary to support a criminal conviction.</p>
</blockquote>

united-states police arrest