Mississippi Has No Stop and Identify Law, but You Must Stop and Show a Licence

Mississippi belongs to the group of states with no stop-and-identify statute at all, and the Code proves it structurally rather than by silence. Searching the Mississippi Code 1972 Annotated for the drafter phrase true name and address returns two sections, both in Title 27 (Taxation and Finance). Searching identify himself returns eight, spread across Title 23 (Elections), Titles 73 and 83 (professions and insurance), Titles 41, 75 and 77, and none of them in Title 97 (Crimes) or Title 99 (Criminal Procedure). Demand of him his name and conceal his identity return nothing. There is no Mississippi analogue to a Texas or Nevada identification offence, and no general obligation to carry identification while on foot.

The duty that does exist while driving is documentary rather than verbal. Miss. Code Ann. Section 63-1-41 provides that every licensee shall have the required licence in his immediate possession at all times when operating a motor vehicle and shall display the same upon demand of a justice court judge, a peace officer or licence examiner or other authorized employee of the commissioner. The section then softens itself: no person charged with violating it shall be convicted if he produces in court a licence issued to him and valid at the time of his arrest. So the offence is failing to produce, and it is curable by later production in court, which is a materially different thing from a criminal duty to state your name.

The second duty is the duty to stop, and this is where Mississippi has legislated most recently. Section 97-9-72(1) applies to the driver of a motor vehicle given a visible or audible signal by an officer, by hand, voice, emergency light or siren, directing the driver to stop, where the officer is acting in the lawful performance of duty and has reasonable suspicion to believe the driver has committed a crime. Willfully failing to obey is a misdemeanor punishable by a fine not exceeding One Thousand Dollars ($1,000.00), up to six (6) months in the county jail, or both. Two statutory defences appear in subsection (5): that the officer was not in uniform or the vehicle used in the attempted stop was not clearly marked, and that the driver proceeded in a safe manner to a reasonably near well-lit public place before stopping. That second defence is a practical answer for a driver signalled on an unlit road at night.

Senate Bill 2101 of the 2023 Regular Session, 2023 Miss. Laws ch. 538, effective 1 July 2023, raised the felony tiers of the same section without touching subsection (1) or the defences. The felony sanction for fleeing with reckless or willful disregard for safety went from five to ten years, the serious-bodily-injury tier from three to five years as a minimum, and the death tier from five to seven years as a minimum.

The third duty is an order-compliance offence, not an identification offence. Miss. Code Ann. Section 97-35-7(1) makes it disorderly conduct to fail or refuse to promptly comply with a request, command or order of a law enforcement officer who has authority to arrest, where the person acts with intent to provoke a breach of the peace or in circumstances that may cause one. The statute then enumerates nine specific commands the officer may give, from moving away from the immediate vicinity, to standing up if sitting or lying down, to not obstructing the passage of a vehicle with the body, to entering a police or other designated vehicle when directed. Giving a name is not among the nine. Refusing to identify yourself, standing alone and without breach-of-the-peace circumstances, does not fit the elements.

Finally, Section 97-9-73 covers resisting. It is unlawful to obstruct or resist, by force, violence, threats or in any other manner, your own lawful arrest or the lawful arrest of another by any state, local or federal officer. Its reach is the arrest itself, not the investigative conversation before it.

00), up to six (6) months in the county jail, or both. 00) or up to ten (10) years in the custody of the Mississippi Department of Corrections, or both. Where the flight causes serious bodily injury the term is five (5) to twenty (20) years under subsection (3), and where it causes death, seven (7) to forty (40) years under subsection (4). 00) or up to six (6) months in the county jail, or both, and the offence escalates to a felony under subsection (3) if committed with willful and wanton disregard for life or safety and someone is injured, maimed or killed.

00) or six (6) months, or both. Failing to display a driver licence under Section 63-1-41 is charged as an equipment-style traffic offence and is defeated outright by producing in court a licence valid at the time of arrest.