Michigan has no stop-and-identify law, but lying to an officer is a crime

The operative Michigan provision is section 479c of the Michigan Penal Code, added by 2012 PA 104 and effective July 20, 2012. It applies only once a peace officer has actually told you that he or she is conducting a criminal investigation. From that point it is an offence to conceal a material fact by trick, scheme or device, to make a statement you know is false or misleading about a material fact, or to hand over a false or misleading document. Silence is not on that list, and subsection (4) removes any doubt by preserving both the Fifth Amendment and section 17 of article I of the Michigan Constitution of 1963, and by preserving the option of declining to communicate at all.

The penalty for lying scales with the offence under investigation rather than with the lie. If the crime being investigated is a serious misdemeanor as defined in section 61 of the William Van Regenmorter Crime Victim's Rights Act, MCL 780.811, the maximum is 93 days or $500. For a misdemeanor punishable by more than a year, or a felony carrying less than four years, it rises to one year or $2,500 or both. For a felony punishable by four years or more it is two years or $5,000 or both. At the top, lying in an investigation into first or second degree murder, human trafficking under chapter LXVIIA, first degree criminal sexual conduct, armed robbery, carjacking, terrorism, or arson, explosives or kidnapping offences carrying at least 20 years, is itself a felony punishable by up to four years or $5,000.

Two carve-outs sit in subsection (3). The section does not apply to any statement made or action taken by an alleged victim of the crime under investigation, and it does not apply to a person acting under duress or reasonable fear of physical harm from a spouse or former spouse, a dating partner, a person with whom they have a child in common, or a current or former member of their household.

The real Michigan identification duties are activity specific. A driver must have an operator's or chauffeur's licence in immediate possession at all times when operating a motor vehicle and display it on demand of any police officer, who under MCL 257.311 must identify himself or herself as an officer. A concealed pistol licensee under MCL 28.425f must carry both the CPL and a state driver licence or personal identification card, must show both on request, and under subsection (3) must immediately disclose to a peace officer who stops them that they are carrying. A vessel operator stopped on Michigan waters must, under MCL 324.80166(1)(a), provide his or her correct name and address and exhibit the certificate of number.

The pressure point is Michigan's obstruction statute. MCL 750.479 defines obstruct to include the use or threatened use of physical interference or force or a knowing failure to comply with a lawful command, and unlike most states Michigan grades a bare obstruction as a felony punishable by up to two years or $2,000. Refusing to identify yourself is not itself a lawful command a Michigan officer can issue on the street absent one of the activity based duties above, but walking away from a lawful Terry detention, or refusing to step out of a stopped car, can be charged under section 479.

479c and prosecuted by the county prosecuting attorney or, for local offences, a city attorney. The exposure runs from 93 days and $500 up to a four year felony and $5,000, keyed to the seriousness of the underlying investigation. 311 of the Michigan Vehicle Code. A concealed pistol licensee who fails to carry or show the licence is responsible for a $100 state civil infraction; failing to disclose that you are carrying draws a $500 fine and a six month suspension of the CPL for a first offence, and $1,000 and revocation for a subsequent offence within three years, with the Michigan State Police notifying the issuing county clerk and entering the suspension into the Law Enforcement Information Network.

The pistol is subject to immediate seizure, and the holder has 45 days to display the licence to the employing law enforcement agency before it becomes subject to forfeiture under section 5g. 80166(3). 479, a felony carrying up to two years, rising to four years for a bodily injury requiring medical attention, ten years for serious impairment of a body function, and twenty years if the officer dies.