Cyclist arrested for riding on sidewalk spends a day in jail

[Eden]

I'm much more worried that the guy was arrested for not having any ID.......

You cannot lie to the police about your identity but at least not yet, there is no law that says you must have government issued ID on your person at all times.... Around here this is accepted (if are driving you do need to have your license, but otherwise you do not have to have an ID card), but I know the ACLU is/has been fighting similar arrests around the country as fundamentally unconstitutional.

[kenyonchris]

I'm much more worried that the guy was arrested for not having any ID.......

You cannot lie to the police about your identity but at least not yet, there is no law that says you must have government issued ID on your person at all times.... Around here this is accepted (if are driving you do need to have your license, but otherwise you do not have to have an ID card), but I know the ACLU is/has been fighting similar arrests around the country as fundamentally unconstitutional.

I doubt that was what he was arrested FOR (the story doesn't day). You DON'T have to carry your DL while operating a bike. I don't. If you break a law and are stopped by an officer, you DO have to tell him your name and date of birth so that he can ID you. You can't tell him someone else's name, or refuse to identify yourself if he has lawfully detained you. The ACLU (God help us all) seldom has the full story. You CAN be arrested for a LOT of things (riding on the sidewalk is one if it is a city ordinance). People have actually said to me "you can't take me to jail because I rolled through that stop sign." Oh yeah? I can. Seldom do, but if I need to, I can.

Making an unlawful arrest exposes a cop to disciplinary action and civil litigation. But few people know that there are many, many things that one can be lawfully arrested for.

[Eden]

I did say you cannot lie... and you cannot refuse to tell the police your name, but the article doesn't mention that he did either of those things, and does say that he was arrested for not having ID (yes I accept that often the news doesn't tell the whole story). I would concern me quite a bit if he did give them his name, but he was taken in anyway, just for not being able to prove it...

[PamNY]

I'm going to check into the issue of carrying ID. The news story doesn't give a lot of detail, and even if they did, there's no way to know the full story.

Here's another story with a little more detail. But just like the first story, this one focuses on the phone call, not the issue of carrying ID.

Pam

[kenyonchris]

I did say you cannot lie... and you cannot refuse to tell the police your name, but the article doesn't mention that he did either of those things, and does say that he was arrested for not having ID (yes I accept that often the news doesn't tell the whole story). I would concern me quite a bit if he did give them his name, but he was taken in anyway, just for not being able to prove it...

This is semantics...but it said that he had no ID, and was arrested. I think the issue is that he had trouble contacting his family, not that he was unlawfully arrested.

[PamNY]

Here's what the Fox News story says: "Police tell Fox 5 that proper procedure was followed, that since Miguel didn't have ID they were obligated to try to identify him." That doesn't quite make sense, because arresting him doesn't make him any more identifiable.

I don't object to enforcement of quality-of-life crimes, and I consider the occasional ticket part of the cost of living in a city. I just want to know if I have to carry my driver's license to avoid being arrested in a case like this.

Personally, I'm astonished that none of the news coverage addresses the ID issue. In a city full of people who don't own cars, it must have come up before.

Pam

[Mr. Bloom]

That doesn't quite make sense, because arresting him doesn't make him any more identifiable.

But the waterboarding, while in custody, helped

[kenyonchris]

Here's what the Fox News story says: "Police tell Fox 5 that proper procedure was followed, that since Miguel didn't have ID they were obligated to try to identify him." That doesn't quite make sense, because arresting him doesn't make him any more identifiable.

I don't object to enforcement of quality-of-life crimes, and I consider the occasional ticket part of the cost of living in a city. I just want to know if I have to carry my driver's license to avoid being arrested in a case like this.

Personally, I'm astonished that none of the news coverage addresses the ID issue. In a city full of people who don't own cars, it must have come up before.

Pam

Ok, I'm a cop. I am in Texas, not your state, but the laws are generally similar. You don't have to have a license to ride a bike. You don't have to have ID on you at all times. If you are stopped for whatever and a cop asks you who you are and what you are doing, and you rattle off your name and date of birth, it all jibes (even if you don't have your license on you, if the cop runs you through dispatch and the descriptors match, its good) you are NOT going to have a problem.

The problem comes when someone has no ID, refuses to give his name or date of birth when detained, or gives a name but can't give a birthdate, or gives different spellings for one name, or gives a birthdate but when asked his age comes up with something different. That is fishy. I don't want to issue a citation for some false person or (as is usually the case) the suspect's brother or roommate whose name popped into his head.

I don't carry my ID when I ride my bike. In fact, I seldom even take it with me in the car if I am going to ride the MTB, I don't want to leave it in the car. If I were stopped, I would give my name, date of birth, I know my DL number, and would be surprised if I were even issued a citation for failure to display a DL (different than failure to ID or driving without a DL), although I could be. The cop would run me, find that I match the info given, find that I am without warrants, and let me go after issuing me a citation for whatever he pulled me over for, if he chose to do that.

Having said that, if you are driving the car, take your DL.

[PamNY]

Thank you for that explanation. I am, just out of curiosity, going to call our local precinct. They have a good community relations person and are usually very helpful. Having this background from you will help me have a more intelligent conversation. They will probably still get a chuckle out of it, but that's okay.

Pam

[TrekTheKaty]

I wasn't aware it had to be a "local" call. In St. Louis, they've split the city in half. Eastern and most cell phone numbers are 314. Western is 636. So if you are arrested in western St. Louis you can't call the house or husband's cell?

You are not required by law to carry ID. It sounds like a cop with a grudge.