A police spokesman referred questions about the lawsuit to the St. Louis County Counselor’s office, which did not respond to a phone call.

The lawsuit seeks class-action status to represent anyone arrested this way in the last five years, which the suit says could number in the hundreds.

Harvey said that the only way to use “wanteds” lawfully is, as soon as the person is detained, to go to a “neutral and detached magistrate” and get a warrant.

Instead, he said, police have been using that detention to obtain the probable cause they were seeking.

Harvey said that he’s also heard complaints that the practice “is a tool for harassment for people who have exercised their right not to talk to the police.”

Representing the class is a man who was arrested on a “wanted” triggered when he declined to talk to a St. Louis County police officer who was asking in a phone call about a domestic assault allegation, the suit says.

The assault complaint was withdrawn the next day, Jan. 26, but the “wanted” was not canceled, and Dwayne Furlow, 31, was arrested on Jan. 28.