Bosses of oil and gas companies, and a privatised water utility company, have been targeted with attempted citizen’s arrests by a new direct action group hoping to achieve environmental justice.
Actions by the Citizen’s Arrest Network (CAN) started appearing on social media feeds in March and April 2025, showing smartly dressed members of the group approaching senior executives of companies and attempting to perform citizen’s arrests.
The Citizen’s Arrest Network: a new direct action group fighting the CEOs of big polluters
The activists said they had dossiers which they say provide evidence of crimes ranging from public nuisance to mismanagement of customer funds.
As of 16 April 2025, CAN has targeted executives including CEOs of fossil fuel companies BP, Shell, Perenco, EnQuest, Harbour Energy, and Serica. Privatised water firm Thames Water was also singled out.
CAN claims it has been successful in placing the company representatives under citizen’s arrest, but it appears that it has not physically held the individuals, and no police action appears to have taken place.
The companies did not provide comment when approached by the Canary.
CAN: a response to crackdown on mainstream protests
The Canary spoke with Citizen’s Arrest Network spokesperson Gail Lynch, who said CAN started because there was no response to the climate crisis “by anyone with any true power” and “things were only getting worse” despite petitions, letters, marches, and protests.
Lynch said:
This is mirrored in other industries where profit comes first and the impacts are ignored.
She continued:
It feels like this relentless, almost desperate drive to maximise financial return at all costs is well and truly out of control.
Lynch said protests against environmentally damaging activities:
get panned in the media and activists are increasingly penalised for their attempts to raise awareness.
More than a dozen activists from Extinction Rebellion and Just Stop Oil have been jailed for their parts in direct action protests in recent years. The custodial sentences were handed out following a crackdown on environmental activism by the Conservative government. The Labour government appears content to carry on with the authoritarian treatment of protesters.
Therefore, Lynch said that:
It was time for something different, and so almost two years ago, the idea was borne and a huge amount of research began. How could we approach the individuals behind the logos and request that they cease and desist The executives at the helm of these organisations are the ones taking the decisions, and therefore need to be held to account.
Killing of health insurance exec threw focus on corporate leaders
In December 2024, United Healthcare CEO Brian Thompson was killed in New York City, in an attack apparently motivated by a hatred of the conduct of private health insurance companies and their denial of care to Americans.
The killing of Thompson sent jitters around corporate executives that they might personally be targeted because of public perceptions of the conduct of their companies.
In the aftermath of the attack, mainstream media outlets expressed shock at the lack of sympathy expressed by the public towards the CEO’s family, and the admiration some showed towards suspect Luigi Mangione.
In a March 2025 statement on its website, CAN said it handed “draft indictment papers” against executives at BP and Shell to the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) because the group:
believes that all executive staff at both oil majors have been instructed to stay away from head offices.
The statement said CAN believed the “stay away” notice has been issued “in response to citizen’s arrests” carried out by the group.
How legitimate are citizen’s arrests?
The Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 says that:
A person other than a constable may arrest without a warrant … anyone who is in the act of committing an indictable offence
And it states that:
anyone whom he has reasonable grounds for suspecting to be committing an indictable offence.
Lynch said:
Whilst we might imagine a stand up citizen tearing after and rugby tackling a bank robber to the ground, that’s not how it reads in law.
University of Reading’s Reading Centre for Climate and Justice director professor Chris Hilson told the Canary there are “technical risks” to performing citizen’s arrests.
The risks include the possibility of the citizen’s arrest itself being a criminal offence or being sued in a civil court for assault or false imprisonment, he said.
Why is CAN using citizen’s arrests in particular?
Lynch said CAN is:
simply motivated by the need for these individuals to stop, think twice about the harm their work causes and recognise that they have the power to make the change that is needed.
She continued that executives who don’t stop and change their ways:
need to be arrested, charged and prosecuted on grounds of Public Nuisance for the serious harm they inflict by virtue of their employment.
She also said CAN:
is not a protest, it’s a legal campaign operating within the bounds of the law.
Lynch told the Canary that CAN wants the companies the group is targeting to:
realise they can not hide anymore, we see them, and we know the individuals leading the charge towards irreparable damage to our planet’s health.
Moreover, she expressed that:
If people think twice about taking up such jobs in the future, that’s a win, but the best thing would be that they accept that their days are done and start in earnest a true shift to cheaper, cleaner energy for all.
She also said she wants the campaign to pass “the pub test” and get the public talking about why CAN is carrying out its actions:
We want local communities everywhere talking about why we did what we did, do what we do and agree that it’s an important way to shine a light on people behind the scenes taking harmful decisions and doing damaging business.
CAN needs support for its legal endeavours
She also made a plea for funding to support the legal side of CAN’s work:
We need funds to support our legal endeavours and to bring justice to bear on people who are breaking the law.
Lynch said that:
Lawyers are committed and generous with their time but they need to be paid and the research takes time to uncover and be carefully checked. In short we need resource and money to help us hold the biggest culprits to account.
CAN’s crowdfunder can be found here, or via its website. CAN is on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, X, and Bluesky.
Climate campaigning needed ‘more than ever’
Hilson told the Canary that:
In the end these arrests are more performative than real.
However, the performativity of the act does not necessarily mean it is not effective. He explained:
Throwing paint at works of art and stopping traffic no longer really work for the climate and environmental movement.
Those types of protests have been criminalised, making them harder; but they are in any event viewed by many members of the public as ‘irresponsible’, which has put them off the message.
Hilson added that he thought:
climate and environmental messages need to be landing now more than ever.
This new tactic of citizens’ arrests, in contrast, looks much more like ‘responsible’ citizenly behaviour.
And the arrests squarely target those who are, in a very different sense, responsible for climate and environmental harm, and not members of the public.
Those being arrested now become seen as the irresponsible ones.
Featured image supplied
