I am an attorney. Do not take this as creating an attorney-client relationship.
I am licensed to practice in three states. I also have a broader knowledge of citizen’s arrest laws in other states because it is related to the subject of shoplifting law, which is a special interest of mine and I have made a special study of it.
In most states the citizen’s arrest law states that a citizen can arrest another for a crime committed in that person’s presence, even a misdemeanor. As one poster pointed out, Florida (outside of the context of shoplifting and dine and dash) does not have a law like that. There may be a few other states like Florida. However, in most states a common citizen can theoretically lawfully arrest another for even a minor crime if the arresting citizen saw the other person commit the crime, using reasonable force if necessary..
That is what the law says. However, don’t confuse that with the way the law is applied. That is different from state to state and even from county to county within a state. In some areas there is still a remnant of the old cultural view that ordinary citizens can enforce the law and citizen’s arrests are tolerated by law enforcement and prosecutors. The more modern trend is that law enforcement does not like private citizens messing with their turf and they, and the prosecutors, will give anyone committing a citizen’s arrest a hard time unless a really serious crime is involved. The police may even charge the arresting citizen with a crime.
Legal theory and legal practice are two different things, unfortunately.