80th Legislature: Delisi Bill Would Make Failing To Give Police ID Information A Crime, Even If You Haven’t Committe One

HB 855 by Dianne White Delisi (R-Temple), is scheduled for debate on the House floor today. The legislation would make it a crime for a person to refuse to give a peace officer your name, date of birth, or address even if you are not under arrest.

In other words, if you are stopped in a car or on the street and a police officer asks for this information and you decline to give it, you have committed a crime.

What ever happened to the right to remain silent or any of those constitutional provisions related to the assumption of innocence. If an officer passes by someone walking on the street who has committed no other offense and asks for this information and they don’t get it, it is a crime.

That’s just wrong. It’s a codification of “Stop and Identify” laws which Texas already has partially on the books.

The ability to expand existing “stop and identify” laws is as result of a 2004 U.S. Supreme Court Case, Hiibel v. Sixth Judicial District, in which the right-wing dominated SCOTUS overturned the Burger Court’s previous precedent on the matter, Brown v. Texas.

This legislation is superfluous given what we already have on the books and likely to be shot down by the High Court again once police officers start abusing their discretion.

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