'Stop and Identify' Statute Allows Authorities To Do Just That
Dear CO-STAR:
I've got a question about questioning and breathalyzing. We have a new president at our school and she's pledged to crack down on the underage drinking that goes on at the school. One of the methods they've employed is having campus police officers roam the campus on weekends. They stop people and ask them for ID. Then if they're underage and seem to have had something to drink they make them submit to a breathalyzer test. Or, if the student refuses to show ID, they get arrested and taken in. Can the police do this? I thought we had a right to remain silent. Can they force us to produce ID?
- Tom, Sophomore, Public College or University, Kansas
Tom:
This is an area of the law that's been in a lot of flux lately. Up until pretty recently conventional wisdom was that, unless an officer had a real reason, they couldn't arrest you. And, yes, it was widely held, by both reasonable people and most of the courts, that if an officer stopped you on the street, you didn't have to say a peep, if you didn't want. Let alone produce a laminated card with your name and address on it.
That all came unraveled with the Supreme Court decision in a 2004 case called Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District Court of Nevada. In that case, the Nevada police pulled over a man named Larry Hiibel. He was driving a truck that matched the description of one that had been used in a crime earlier in the day.
The police asked Hiibel to identify himself 11 times and Hiibel (having broken no laws - he was NOT the suspect they were looking for) refused. The police arrested him under a state "stop and identify" statute (that, well, required all people stopped by the police to identify themselves or get arrested) and they charged him with obstructing justice.
Hiibel challenged the constitutionality of the stop and identify law, saying that it violated the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court sided with the state and let the law stand. So, in any state where there's one of these stop-and-identify statutes on the books, the cops are allowed to force you to give up the 411 on yourself.
And, unfortunately for you Tom, Kansas has one of these laws. It's Kansas Code of Criminal Procedure 22-2402. It says in the relevant part:
"Without making an arrest, a law enforcement officer may stop any person in a public place whom such officer reasonably suspects is committing, has committed or is about to commit a crime and may demand of the name, address of such suspect and an explanation of such suspect's actions."
In plain language what that means is that the police on your campus can stop pretty much anyone they think has been drinking. Since about 75 percent of the population on campus is underage, there's enough reasonable suspicion for them to make the stop. Once they do, they can require identification.
I know. It doesn't seem fair. And I'm sorry about that. But it's the state of the law right now, and you and your other friends who stumble home on Saturday nights are going to have to live with it.
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C.L. Lindsay III is the founding executive director of CO-STAR, the Coalition for Student & Academic Rights, and author of the book "The College Student's Guide to the Law: Get a Grade Changed, Keep Your Stuff Private, Throw a Police-Free Party and More!" in bookstores now. CO-STAR is a network of lawyers, professors and students who work to protect academic freedom and constitutional rights at college campuses nationwide. If you have a question for CO-STAR, log on to their Web site at www.co-star.org.
The material in this column addresses general legal issues only; is not legal advice and should not be relied on as such; and may or may not be appropriate to a specific situation. Laws and procedures change frequently and are subject to differing interpretations. This column is not intended to create, and does not create, a lawyer-client relationship and is not intended to be a substitute for legal counsel in the relevant jurisdiction.
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© 2007, McClatchy-Tribune News Service
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.
