Private citizen
{{Short description|Person with no official role}}
{{dist|Sovereign citizen movement}}
A private citizen is a citizen who does not have an official or professional role in a given situation.Oxford English Dictionary, 3rd edition, 2014, [https://www.oed.com/view/Entry/33513 s.v., definition 5]
The same person may be a private citizen in one role, and an official in another. For example, a legislator is an official when voting in the legislature, but a private citizen when paying taxes or when undertaking a citizen's arrest in a public place.
A person may remain a de jure private citizen while having considerable political power and influence:
...Pericles, in his capacity as a private citizen, was able to dominate the affairs of the Athenian assembly, and to direct and guide the demos for nearly a generation.Graham Maddox, "Democratic theory and the face to face society", Politics 9:1:56-62 (1974) as quoted in {{cite journal |last1=Sparkes |first1=A. W. |title=Idiots, ancient and modern |journal=Australian Journal of Political Science |date=1988 |volume=23 |issue=1 |pages=101–102 |doi=10.1080/00323268808402051 }}
In law
Private citizens in qui tam actions bring suit on behalf of the state but are not officers of the court, and are possibly eligible for a reward.Gerald N. Hill, Kathleen Hill, Nolo's Plain English Law Dictionary, 2009, {{isbn|1413310370}}, s.v. "qui tam action", p. 350
Private citizens may have the right to make citizen's arrests under certain circumstances, despite not being sworn law-enforcement officials.{{Cite journal |last=Robbins |first=I.P. |date=2016 |title=Vilifying the vigilante: a narrowed scope of citizen's arrest |url=https://doi.org/10.1016/0010-4485(77)90037-9 |journal=Cornell Journal of Law and Public Policy |volume=25 |issue=3 |pages=557-599 |doi= |issn=0010-8847}}
Private citizens may have the right to bring citizen suits to enforce a statute.{{Citation needed|date=January 2024}}
A government employee may be considered to be a private citizen in the context of law enforcement actions. For example, an emergency medical technician who discovered contraband on a patient was ruled not to be a "government agent" for the purposes of the constitutional restrictions on government searches.Ken Wallentine, Street Legal: A Guide to Pre-trial Criminal Procedure for Police, Prosecutors, and Defenders, 2007, {{isbn|1590318226}}, [https://books.google.com/books?id=YlFsR2voQ1AC&pg=PA145 p. 145] [https://casetext.com/case/state-v-amirkhizi State v. Amirkhizi, 100 P.3d 225, 2004 UT App. 324 (Utah Ct. App. 2004)]