I got pulled over the other night for not using my turn signal. The cop asked for my liscense, registration, and proof of insurance. Then he asked for the driver’s liscense of the passenger. Why would he do this? Can he do this?
Now is the time for all good men to come the the aid of their gazorninplatt.
The cop can ask for I.D. Doesn’t have to be a dl. the passenger only has to identify him/her self.
Peace,
mangeorge
I only know two things;
I know what I need to know
And
I know what I want to know
Mangeorge, 2000
Sure, he can ask for anybody’s ID any time. You can ask for his, too. Be judicious about exercising that prerogative.
Let me modify my previous post slightly. He can ask you to identify yourself. You don’t have to carry any official I.D. But if he has cause, he can hold you untill proof of your identification is forthcoming.
Peace,
mangeorge
What kind of cause would he need to hold you? What if you were just walking down the street, can a cop demand to see ID? This happened to a friend of mine.
I would’ve gotten away with it, too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids!
IIRC: You do in the state of Colorado if you are a male aged 18 years or older. Something to do with registering for the draft.
IIRC, in Virginia, all adults have to carry an ID of some sort at all times. Seems rather big-brotherish and a violation of constitutional privacy issues.
I kind of understand the motives of the “blanks” in “Max Headroom”.
Judges 14:9 - So [Samson] scraped the honey into his hands and went on, eating as he went. When he came to his father and mother, he gave some to them and they ate it; but he did not tell them that he had scraped the honey out of the body of the lion.
I can tell you one thing–if you’ve got your DL in your wallet which in turn is located under your seat, tell the cop what you are doing before reaching down to retrieve it. They get mighty nervous when you go reaching for things they can’t see.
DHR
Exits, pursued by a bear
You are not always required to stop when asked to by a police officer. This point was reiterated in the recent USSC decision that DID allow the police to use flight as a determining factor in allowing the police to make a later stop. If the officer simply asks to talk to you on the street, you do not have to stop.
Having legally ‘seized’ you (in this case, by pulling you over for violation of the traffic laws), the officer is allowed to determine your identity.
As to passengers, everything gets quite murky. There is a tendency in the law in general to treat everyone in a car the same, despite the actual legal issues involved. My response would be a definite maybe. I will dig further on this and post later. 
Attorneys, I have a question.
Can an unmarked car ( to include nothing on plates, no markings, and no real “look” of being anything but another car) with a single flashing red light in his rear view, pull over motorists? (once he gets out all he has is a badge on a leash arouond his neck)
Are we required to stop or can you say, as I want to, “I dont acknowledge you as law because you arent recognizable as law, I dont see anything on you that would say you are”.
Isnt there a law somewhere that says cops must be plainly distinguishable and marked and cant be all “undercover”?
In California, you have to give the cops your name & address whenever they ask for it. You can refuse to do so. That might make you look a little suspicious.
Better yet, YOU can ask the cop for HIS ID.
Yep, believe it or not, they have a little drivers license like ID that they must show you if you ask. I didn’t know this until recently. Also, if they have an unmarked car, you have the right to ask them to call for a regular cop car before proceeding with anything. This is so you don’t get caught by fake cops.
Handy,
How can you ask the undercover cop to call for a real cop without stopping? I understand the reason that you would want to see a real cop, but I don’t understand the logistics in getting one.
Brian
Re: Newton’s question
This comes up every few years or so around here, because some bogus “cop” appears to pull people over and attempt various scurrilous behaviors or the real cops have some unmarked traffic operation going on. The local PD always advises that, if you are in doubt about being pulled over by a less than adequately marked car, proceed at a legal pace (Ah! The OJ chase revisited) to a well lit and occupied area and then pull over. The real cops are instructed to play by this scenario.
Templeton, you don’t mention how late at night it was or how young/old the passenger was. Is it possible you were in an area with a curfew and he needed to check for ages?
Dolce Far Niente
If your freind matches the description of someone who has committed a crime, the cop can hold you, without arrest, until he/she determines that you’re not the crook.
Any kind of probable cause, I imagine.
Most cops won’t do stuff just to bug you. They’d rather just go get a doughnut.
If the good cops would help weed out the shitheads, the rest would get a lot more respect.
Remember, police work is about 99.9% boring.
Peace,
mangeorge
Doesn’t it very from state to state? In Oregon ,according to the state supreme court, an officer must have reasonable suspicion that a crime has occured AND a reasonable belief that you commited the crime before he can legally even approch you. I don’t no if it has any practical effect. It seems just being a passenger in a car would not give an officer the right to ask for ID.
Doesn’t it very from state to state? In Oregon ,according to the state supreme court, an officer must have reasonable suspicion that a crime has occured AND a reasonable belief that you commited the crime before he can legally even approach you. I don’t no if it has any practical effect. It seems just being a passenger in a car would not give an officer the right to ask for ID.
Bakka, I am no expert on Oregon, but I suspect you’ve misunderstood the requirements of an encounter with law enforcement.
We did this once on another thread, I think, but perhaps it bears repeating.
There are several kinds of encounters with law enforcement. An encounter may be completely consensual. That is, a cop can generally walk up to you and ask you questions. As long as you are free to disregard his questions and go about your business, the encounter is completely consensual, and the Fourth Amendment is not implicated. The cop is required to have no particular reason to approach you.
The second level of encounter is what’s known as a Terry stop, shorthand for the Supreme Court case Terry v. Ohio which described it. It involves only a minimal intrusion into personal liberty, permitting the officer to briefly detain you and ask you questions. The officer may also pat down your outer clothes to ensure, for his own safety, that you are not armed. To initiate a Terry stop, the officer must have a reasonable, articulable suspicion that a crime has been committed, or is about to be committed, and that you are connected in some way. This is a lower standard than “probable cause,” but a higher one than “a hunch,” or “an inchoate suspicion.”
Finally, for a full scale custodial search or interrogation to occur, the officer must have probable cause to believe that a crime has been committed and that you are the criminal. This is a “seizure” within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment.
If you have a case cite for the Oregon case you mention, which forbids even a consensual encounter, I’d love to read it.