Indiana Stop and Identify: The Duty Attaches Only on an Infraction or Ordinance Stop

The placement of the statute tells you almost everything about its reach. Indiana put the identification duty in Title 34, the civil code, inside IC 34-28-5, the chapter that governs infraction and ordinance violation enforcement proceedings. Title 35, the criminal code, contains no counterpart. The operative words of Ind. Code § 34-28-5-3.5 are that the officer must have "stopped the person for an infraction or ordinance violation," so the duty is keyed to the reason for the stop, not to the officer's general authority. That is why Indiana is not a stop and identify state in the way that Texas, Nevada or Ohio are.

What you actually have to produce is written in the alternative. The statute lists (1) name, address, and date of birth, or (2) driver's license, if in the person's possession. Giving the three identifying items satisfies the section even if you are not carrying a card. A separate provision, Ind. Code § 9-24-13-3(a), independently requires a licensed driver to keep a physical license in immediate possession while driving and to display it on demand of a court or a police officer authorized to enforce motor vehicle rules, so a driver stopped for a moving violation is answering to two different statutes at once.

The companion section, Ind. Code § 34-28-5-3(a), also caps how long the stop may run. An officer who believes in good faith that you committed an infraction or ordinance violation may detain you for a time sufficient to do three things and no more: inform you of the allegation, obtain your name, address and date of birth or your license, and allow you to execute a notice to appear. There is no statutory authority in that chapter for holding you longer while something else is investigated.

Indiana also protects your phone during that detention. Ind. Code § 34-28-5-3(b) bars an officer who has detained you for an infraction or ordinance violation from extracting or downloading information from a cellular telephone or other wireless device in your possession without your consent, unless the officer has probable cause to believe the device was used in the commission of a crime, the extraction is under a valid search warrant, or it is otherwise authorized by law. If you carry a digital license, Ind. Code § 9-24-13-3(c) adds that transmitting your mobile credential is not consent to search, view or access any other data or application on the device, and the officer may not handle your phone at all in order to view the credential.

Staying silent is not the same as lying. Two Indiana offences punish false answers rather than no answer. Ind. Code § 35-44.1-2-3(d)(1)(B) makes it false informing, a Class B misdemeanor, to give false information to a law enforcement officer that relates to the commission of a crime, knowing it to be false. Ind. Code § 35-44.1-2-4 creates false identity statement, a Class A misdemeanor, where a person with intent to mislead public servants makes at least two material statements about their identity within five years, in one or more official proceedings or investigations, that are so inconsistent that one of them is necessarily false. Refusing to answer, by contrast, is not resisting law enforcement: Ind. Code § 35-44.1-3-1(a)(1) requires that a person "forcibly" resist, obstruct or interfere with an officer.

Refusing to identify yourself on an infraction or ordinance stop is charged under Ind. 5 as a Class C misdemeanor, which under Ind. Code § 35-50-3-4 carries a fixed term of not more than 60 days and a fine of not more than $500. That is a criminal case, filed separately from the underlying ticket, which proceeds as a civil infraction action under IC 34-28-5 with money judgments capped by Ind. Code § 34-28-5-4 at $10,000 for a Class A infraction, $1,000 for Class B, $500 for Class C and $25 for Class D.

Any Indiana law enforcement officer with authority over the underlying infraction or ordinance can make the arrest. If the underlying stop was not for an infraction or an ordinance violation, the element that triggers the duty is missing and the refusal charge fails on the face of the statute. A false answer is prosecuted instead under Ind. 1-2-3 (Class B misdemeanor, up to 180 days and $1,000) or Ind. 1-2-4 (Class A misdemeanor, up to one year and $5,000).