identify

"Stop and identify" statutes are laws in several U.S. states that authorize police to lawfully order people whom they reasonably suspect of a crime to state their name. If there is not reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed, is being committed, or is about to be committed, an individual is not required to provide identification, even in these states.The Fourth Amendment prohibits unreasonable searches and seizures and requires warrants to be supported by probable cause. In Terry v. Ohio (1968), the U.S. Supreme Court established that it is constitutional for police to temporarily detain a person based on an articulable reasonable suspicion that a crime has been committed, and then to conduct a patdown for weapons based on a reasonable belief that the person is armed. Then in Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada (2004), the Supreme Court held that statutes requiring suspects to disclose their names during a valid Terry stop did not violate the Fourth Amendment.However, some "stop and identify" statutes that are unclear about how people must identify themselves violate suspects’ due process through the void for vagueness doctrine. For instance, in Kolender v. Lawson (1983), the Court invalidated a California law requiring "credible and reliable" identification as overly vague. The court also held that the Fifth Amendment could allow a suspect to refuse to give his name if he has a reasonable belief that giving his name could be incriminating.The Nevada "stop-and-identify" law at issue in Hiibel allows police officers to detain any person they encounter under circumstances which reasonably indicate that "the person has committed, is committing or is about to commit a crime"; the person may be detained only to "ascertain his identity and the suspicious circumstances surrounding his presence abroad." In turn, the law requires the officer to have reasonable and articulable suspicion of criminal involvement, and that the person detained to "identify himself", but does not compel the person to answer any other questions put to him by the officer. The Nevada Supreme Court interpreted "identify" under the state’s law to mean merely stating one’s name. As of April 2008, 23 other states have similar laws.

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