Think You Have The Right To Demand Police Identify Themselves? Look Closer.

Police officers are required to display and provide their identification on request—except when they aren't. There is no federal mandate, nor much punishment, for officers who stay anonymous.
BoingBoing
Feb. 25, 2015

Many of us believe that we can ask any police officer for their name or badge number, and that a refusal to provide it is a violation of the law. We are often outraged when officers conceal their identities, especially when they are suspected of wrongdoing. But even when policy or legislation mandates that they disclose, officers rarely receive punishment if they fail to do so.

Depending on your jurisdiction, which could be city, college, county, or state, officers may have no obligation to wear identification at all, let alone disclose it on request. Moreover, departmental policies that do require identification often allow broad discretion for an officer, or commanders, to suspend the rule if they experience a threat, be it a present danger or existential, such as someone later using that information to harass.

Troy Payne, an assistant professor of justice at the University of Alaska at Anchorage, notes that there are about 18,000 local law-enforcement agencies in the US, all of which operate independently.

"Other than civil liability, after a civil-rights lawsuit, almost all police activity is governed by their own policies and their ability to enforce their policies," Payne said. Some policies and ideas, in model form, come from the International Association of Chiefs of Police. (The IACP did not reply to a request for an interview.)

A typical policy is found in the Seattle Police Department's manual:
Employees shall provide their name and Department serial number verbally, or in writing if requested.

Employees may use a Department-issued business card that contains their name and serial number to satisfy the request for the information.

Employees shall also show their department identification card and badge (sworn) when specifically requested to do so.

Exception: Employees are not required to immediately identify
  • An investigation is jeopardized
  • A police function is hindered
  • There is a safety consideration
Summarized, there's an affirmative right for anyone to demand a police officer's information, but the officer has many reasons to deny this, and there's no specific repercussion in the rules. Failure to comply would fall under general disciplinary guidelines.

But a broad rule makes it seemingly unlikely that an officer would face a consequence:
Employees are authorized and expected to use discretion in a reasonable manner consistent with the mission of the Department and duties of their office and assignment.
Boing Boing checked the policies of dozens of major departments in America, as well as Ferguson, St. Louis, and St. Louis County in Missouri, and you can see a selection of policies in the sidebar below.

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