Wyoming Has No Stop and Identify Crime, but Withholding Your Identity Costs You the Citation

Wyoming's criminal code contains no stop and identify offence. Searching all forty-five titles of the Wyoming Statutes returns no duty to identify yourself, no true name and address formula, and no crime of refusing to give a name to a peace officer. The interference provision that carries that weight in some states does not do so here. W.S. 6-5-204(a) makes it a misdemeanour punishable by up to one year and a fine of not more than $1,000 to knowingly obstruct, impede or interfere with or resist arrest by a peace officer while engaged in the lawful performance of his official duties, and the section says nothing about identification. Compare the states that wrote a recording proviso or an identification duty directly into their obstruction offence: Wyoming's is bare.

The structure of Title 7 chapter 2 confirms the gap rather than merely implying it. That chapter is about arrest. W.S. 7-2-102(a) covers arrest on a warrant or on reasonable grounds to believe a warrant issued, and W.S. 7-2-102(b) covers warrantless arrest in three situations: any criminal offence being committed in the officer's presence, probable cause on a felony, or probable cause on a misdemeanour where the person unless immediately arrested will not be apprehended, may cause injury or property damage, or may destroy or conceal evidence. There is no companion section authorising an investigative detention short of arrest, and the phrase reasonable suspicion appears nowhere in Titles 6, 7 or 31. Wyoming simply left the Terry stop to constitutional law and never legislated an identification demand to go with it.

The real consequence lives in the traffic code, and it is a discretion rather than a charge. Under W.S. 31-5-1204(c), a person halted for any violation of the traffic act must be taken without unnecessary delay before the proper court in two cases: when the person demands an immediate appearance before a judge, or when the person refuses to give a promise to appear by refusing to accept the citation. Under W.S. 31-5-1204(d)(i), where subsection (c) does not apply, the officer has a discretion to issue a citation or to take the person before a judge when the person does not furnish satisfactory evidence of identity, or when the officer has reasonable and probable grounds to believe the person will disregard a promise to appear. So refusing to identify yourself at a Wyoming traffic stop is not a crime and creates no new charge, but it removes the cite-and-release option and can put you in front of a circuit judge the same day.

That exchange is spelled out on the other side too. W.S. 31-5-1205(d) says a person gives a promise to appear by accepting at least one copy of the written citation, and once that happens the officer shall not take the person into physical custody for the violation. W.S. 31-5-1205(e) backs it with an unusual sanction aimed at the officer: any officer violating any of the provisions of that section is guilty of misconduct in office and is subject to removal from office. W.S. 31-5-1205(b) requires the appearance date to be at least five days out unless the person demands an earlier hearing. Outside the traffic act, W.S. 7-2-103(a) lets a citation issue as a charging document for any misdemeanour the officer has probable cause to believe was committed, with release under 7-2-103(b) turning on whether the person presents no danger, will not damage property, will appear, and is willing to accept the citation.

Three narrow settings do compel identification, and it is worth knowing exactly which. First, W.S. 31-7-116 requires every licensee to have the driver's license in immediate possession at all times when driving and to display it on demand of any judicial officer, municipal court judge, any officer or agent of the division or any police officer, defined by W.S. 31-5-102(a)(xxxiii) as every officer authorised to direct or regulate traffic or to make arrests for traffic violations. Display of a physical licence means surrendering it, and the officer must return it immediately after examination. The same section supplies a defence: no person charged with violating it shall be convicted if he produces in court a driver's license previously issued to him and valid at the time of his arrest. Second, W.S. 31-5-1103 requires the driver in an injury, death or property damage accident to give name, address and the registration number of the vehicle and, on request and if available, to exhibit the licence to the injured person, the other driver or attendant, and to any police officer at the scene or investigating. Third, and distinctively Wyoming, W.S. 6-9-301(c) requires a skier involved in an injury collision to give his name and current address to a ski area employee or a member of the ski patrol before leaving the vicinity, or within twenty-four hours if he left to secure aid.

There is nothing to charge for a bare refusal to identify. The costs are procedural. S. S. 31-5-1204(c)(ii) and must be taken before the court without unnecessary delay. S. 31-5-1204(a), including driving under the influence, reckless driving, racing, negligent homicide and wilfully fleeing or attempting to elude a police officer, the officer's arrest authority is the same as on a felony arrest. S. S. S. S. 31-5-1201(a), fined at not more than $200 for a first conviction, $300 for a second of the same offence within a year, and $500 or up to six months for a third within a year of the first.

S. 31-5-1204(a)(iii) as an offence carrying felony-level arrest authority. S. 6-9-301(d) is a misdemeanour of up to twenty days and a $200 fine. S. 6-5-204(a), up to one year and $1,000.