{"id":63563,"date":"2026-03-16T12:46:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-16T17:46:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=63563"},"modified":"2026-03-17T22:43:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T03:43:52","slug":"al-when-detainee-doesnt-properly-id-himself-the-officer-can-demand-proof-of-id","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/?p=63563","title":{"rendered":"AL: When detainee doesn’t properly ID himself, the officer can demand proof of ID"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The N.D. Ala. certified this question: “Under [Ala. Code 1975,] \u00a7 15-5-30, when a law enforcement officer asks a person for his name, address, and explanation of his actions, and the person gives an incomplete or unsatisfactory oral response, does the statute prohibit the officer from demanding or requesting physical identification?” No. Jennings v. Smith<\/a>, 2026 Ala. LEXIS 28 (Mar. 13, 2026):<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

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In summary, Alabama law is clear — once an officer has reasonable suspicion to believe that a suspect is committing, has committed, or is about to commit a felony or other public offense, \u00a7 15-5-30 empowers the officer to demand that the suspect disclose his or her name and address in a format that would allow the officer to affirmatively identify the suspect. As indicated above, establishing a suspect’s correct identity furthers an important governmental function by allowing an officer to confirm whether a suspect is violating the law or by eliminating the suspect from suspicion. If the officer’s demand for a name and address is not heeded, then the officer is faced with choices. The officer can either arrest the suspect for intentionally preventing the officer from performing a governmental function in violation of \u00a7 13A-10-2(a)(2) or delay the arrest and supplement the demand by asking for more conclusive positive identification. Either way, the suspect bears the burden to completely identify himself or herself during a valid Terry stop; thus, failing to provide sufficient identifying information when demanded to do so violates Alabama law.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Watering flowers while black: AP: In Black pastor\u2019s arrest, Alabama Supreme Court rules police can demand to see identification<\/a>:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Ruling in the case of a Black pastor\u00a0who was arrested\u00a0while watering his neighbor\u2019s flowers, the Alabama Supreme Court said police can demand to see identification during a stop if they are dissatisfied with a person\u2019s verbal answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Justices\u00a0issued the 6-3 decision\u00a0last week after a federal judge presiding over a lawsuit about Michael Jennings\u2019 2022 arrest asked the court to clarify whether officers can demand to see a person\u2019s identification under the state\u2019s \u201cstop-and-identify\u201d law. The minister was arrested when he declined to show Childersburg police identification.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The N.D. Ala. certified this question: “Under [Ala. Code 1975,] \u00a7 15-5-30, when a law enforcement officer asks a person for his name, address, and explanation of his actions, and the person gives an incomplete or unsatisfactory oral response, does … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-63563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-reasonable-suspicion"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=63563"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":63607,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63563\/revisions\/63607"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=63563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=63563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/fourthamendment.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=63563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}