I was a LEO in CA for a long time, and was well aware of that section. However, unless it was a life an death situation (and maybe not even then), I would never do it. As soon as you "deputize" someone, all kinds of civil liabilities come into play. If your "deputy" gets hurt, is he/she covered by workmans comp? And if not, who is responsible. Probably me. How about if the "deputy" gets killed? I put him/her into a deadly situation with no training, no equipment, no nothing. Nothing but bad could come of this in todays world. This section was probably whipped up in the days of cowboys and Indians; form a posse to go chase the guys who robbed the stagecoach. No lawyers back then to sit back and pick you to death for what you did.

A bunch of years ago an officer I worked with got shot about six times by a BG with a Tech-9. The BG disappeared into the darkness alongside of rural I-5. A truck driver saw what was happening and stopped to help. The officer gave him the shotgun from the patrol car (thinking that he was going to pass out), and gave him a description of the BG, worrying that the BG was going to circle around and start shooting again. That didn't happen, and a responding officer caught the BG. The officer, even tho the truck driver had voluntarily stopped to help, got ripped by the department for arming a civilian. Go figure...