(slang) Also in the form tap on the shoulder: to arrest (someone).
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1830, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], chapter VIII, in Paul Clifford. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley, […], →OCLC, page 225:
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We are certainly scented here, and I walk about like a barrel of beer at Christmas, under hourly apprehension of being tapped!
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1999 February, Charlotte Carter, Coq Au Vin, New York, N.Y.: The Mysterious Press, →ISBN, page 129:
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"You have to pack up and get out of there, girl. You could end up being tapped for that pimp's murder. The police ain't gonna hear about finding your aunt Viv. Or about Andre's butt. What are y'all going to do if they point the finger at him? If the cops over there are like they are over here, they ain't gonna look no further than the first black man they can put their hands on. They'll put his long legs under the jail."
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2006, Noire [pseudonym], Thug-A-Licious: An Urban Erotic Tale, New York, N.Y.: One World, Ballantine Books, →ISBN, page 108:
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"Ain't gone be no Rikers Island for you next time," I warned him. "You get tapped on another gun charge and you looking at some upstate time."