West Virginia Has No Stop-and-Identify Law, Only a Driver's Duty to Show a Licence

The starting point is what the Code does not contain. West Virginia has no counterpart to the Texas or Nevada failure-to-identify offences. A full-text search of the Code returns no section creating a duty to give a true name to a law-enforcement officer, and the loitering provisions that exist do not fill the gap: §61-6-14a reaches only loitering on school property in violation of posted rules without the principal's written permission, and nothing in it compels an explanation or an identification. Refusing to answer an officer's questions on the street is therefore not an offence in West Virginia by itself.

The duties that do exist are attached to the act of driving. Section 17B-2-9(a) requires every licensee to have his or her driver's licence in immediate possession at all times when operating a motor vehicle, and to display it on demand. The list of who may demand it is specific and short: a magistrate, a municipal judge, a circuit court judge, a peace officer, or an employee of the Division of Motor Vehicles. A violation is a misdemeanor with a fine of not more than $500.

Subsection (b) of the same section carries a safe harbour that a driver stopped without a wallet should know about. No person charged with violating §17B-2-9 shall be convicted if that person produces in court, or at the office of the arresting officer, a driver's licence issued to them and valid at the time of the arrest. The charge is defeated by later production; it is a carry-and-show requirement, not a licensing offence, and it does not punish a licensed driver who simply left the card at home.

The vehicle's paperwork carries a parallel duty. Section 17A-3-13 requires every registration card to be carried at all times in the vehicle it refers to, or carried by the person driving or in control of the vehicle, who must display it on demand of a police officer or any officer or employee of the Division. The same section expressly accepts a digital card: carrying and displaying an electronic or mobile registration card issued by the Division satisfies the requirement.

A crash triggers a wider disclosure than a traffic stop does. Under §17C-4-3(a)(1), a driver involved in a crash resulting in injury, death, or damage to another vehicle that is driven or attended must, if physically able, provide the person struck or the other driver or occupant with his or her name, a valid telephone number where he or she may be contacted, and the year, make, model and last four digits of the vehicle identification number, together with proof of security and financial responsibility, including the insured's name and the insurer's name, contact information and policy number. Subsection (a)(2) lets the driver satisfy this by giving the information instead to a law-enforcement officer investigating or assisting at the scene.

What West Virginia does punish is lying, and §61-5-17(c) is drafted with limits that are easy to miss. Knowingly and wilfully making a materially false statement with intent to impede or obstruct a law-enforcement officer, the State Fire Marshal, or a full-time deputy or assistant fire marshal in the conduct of an investigation of a misdemeanor or felony offence is a misdemeanor, punishable by a fine of not less than $25 nor more than $200, or five days in jail, or both. Then come the exclusions. The subsection does not apply to statements made by a spouse, parent, stepparent, grandparent, sibling, half-sibling, child, stepchild or grandchild of the person under investigation, whether related by blood or marriage. Statements made by the person under investigation may not be used as the basis for a prosecution under it at all. And for the purposes of that subsection only, the term law-enforcement officer does not include a watchman, a member of the West Virginia State Police, or college security personnel who is not a certified law-enforcement officer. A false statement charge under the subsection relating to a misdemeanor investigation may not be used to seek or support a secured bond or pre-trial incarceration.

Walking away is treated separately from staying silent. Section 61-5-17(d) makes it a misdemeanor to intentionally flee, by any means other than a vehicle, from a law-enforcement officer who is attempting to make a lawful arrest or to lawfully detain the person, where the person knows or reasonably believes that is what the officer is doing. The first offence carries a fine of not less than $50 nor more than $500 and ten days in jail. That offence requires flight from a lawful arrest or detention, not mere refusal to identify.

Failing to display a driver's licence on demand is a misdemeanor under §17B-2-9(b) with a fine of not more than $500, defeated entirely if the driver produces a licence valid at the time of arrest in court or at the arresting officer's office. Failing to carry or display the registration card violates §17A-3-13. Giving a false statement to an investigating officer is a misdemeanor under §61-5-17(c) carrying a fine of $25 to $200, five days in jail, or both, with the family, self-incrimination and State Police exclusions described above.

Physically obstructing an officer is charged under §61-5-17(a), which requires threats, menaces, acts, or otherwise forcibly or illegally hindering the officer, and carries a fine of not less than $50 nor more than $500 or up to one year in jail, or both. Fleeing on foot from a lawful arrest or detention under §61-5-17(d) carries a fine of $50 to $500 plus ten days in jail on a first offence, rising to $250 to $1,000 and thirty days on a second and $1,000 to $2,000 with sixty days to one year on a third. Under §61-5-17(p) the court disregards prior convictions occurring more than fifteen years before the offence in question when counting offences.