In state of MA is a person required to funish ID to officer upon request and what is the law, chapt and section?
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In state of MA is a person required to funish ID to officer upon request and what is the law, chapt and section?
MAn goes out to his car in driveway to get shirt. PAssing officer observes this activity, stops are request ID.
Asked on May 5, 2009 under Criminal Law, Massachusetts
Answers:
B. B., Member, New Jersey Bar / FreeAdvice Contributing Attorney
Answered 14 years ago | Contributor
I very much doubt that there is a specific section of the written law that requires a person to provide a police officer with identification on request. It is part of the understood power of a police officer and has been so, probably for as long as there have been police officers and identification papers. While a policeman might not always be able to simply walk up to someone and ask for identification, it takes very little for the request to be proper. Seeing someone going into a car, visible from the street, is enough. While it may have been annoying, the inconvenience is so minor that public safety is more important.
Stop and think for just a moment. If the person going into your car had been a thief, instead of you, the policeman might have stopped a crime against you. The police officer had no way of knowing that the person going into the car lived at that address -- without asking for identification! I'd say the officer was doing his job, and doing it well.
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