Must a citizen provide their ID to a police officer?

When in doubt, just identify yourself when a cop asks, said Jim Chanin, a prominent civil rights lawyer in Oakland, Ca.

But if you are arrested for not providing identification in California, you owe it to others to fight it in court, he said. Chances are the collaring was illegal, and the initial contact between a cop and a citizen is a place where constitutional rights are paramount.

"I would fight those cases and I might consider suing as a result," he said.

But knowing for sure whether you must identify yourself to a cop will take some research. It depends on where you are.

In states like California and New York, the courts have ruled you can't be busted for balking on ID, said Santa Cruz lawyer Katya Komisaruk, who has practiced in both states and written on the subject. Some attorneys say in Washington you can ignore a command to stop if you are innocent of any crime.

If you are driving, of course, you must produce a driver's license when stopped because motoring is a privilege.

The nation's various obstruction, "stop and identify" and "stop and frisk" laws are so vague "you can chose to enforce it against whoever you want to," said Jeffrey Fagan, a law professor at Columbia and Yale. "This has severe consequences."

They're also known as "contempt of cop laws" or "cover charges", because police are suspected of using them to punish attitude or justify injurious force.

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