Rhode Island § 32-3-1 - Town Forests, Parks, and Recreation Systems

§ 32-3-1. Local regulations — Prosecution of violations.

Town councils and city councils may pass such ordinances, bylaws, and regulations as they may think proper in relation to the care, management, and use of the public parks, squares, or grounds within the limits of their respective towns or cities, and may prescribe punishment for the violation thereof by a fine not exceeding twenty dollars ($20.00) or by imprisonment not exceeding ten (10) days for each offense. Every deputy sheriff, town sergeant, town constable, or police officer, or any officer authorized to serve criminal process, may arrest, without a warrant, any person who does any criminal act or willfully violates any of those ordinances, bylaws, or regulations in any of those public parks, squares, or grounds, and may detain that person until a complaint can be made against him or her, and he or she can be taken upon a warrant issued upon that complaint; provided, that the arrest and detention without a warrant shall not continue longer than the space of six (6) hours when the arrest is made between the hours of 4 o’clock in the morning (4:00 a.m.) and 8 o’clock in the evening (8:00 p.m.), and when made at any other hour, the person arrested shall not be detained after 10 o’clock in the morning (10:00 a.m.) of the following day.