my understanding is if an officer requests identification you are required to provide it even if just walking down the street. however I'm not 100 sure. in a case like this if you have nothing to hide then cooperation is always the best thing
Originally Posted by OldButStillGoing
No, but not entirely off base either. The US Supreme Court in
Hiibel v. Nevada held that States can pass so-called stop and identify statutes. But the stop has to be based on some articulable suspicion of illegal activity. I don't recall the magic words used, but some sort of reasonable suspicion is required. I can't recall if ID has to be shown or verbal identification is enough. The holding is basically that if an officer makes a good
Terry stop, he gets a few questions, one of which can be your name. Seems like they left open open the question of whether you could invoke the 5th Amendment and refuse to give your name.
It's not my field of law, so SJ may have some amendment or correction to path us general description.