[Noisebridge-discuss] CopCards

[Sai]

On Sun, Jul 7, 2013 at 10:14 PM, Leif Ryge <leif at synthesize.us> wrote:
> Here is one example: In the state of Washington (and probably other
> states) you have to tell the officer who owns the car you're driving:
> http://apps.leg.wa.gov/RCW/default.aspx?cite=46.61.020
> via http://blog.seattlepi.com/seattle911/2009/03/03/what-are-you-legally-required-to-do-during-a-traffic-stop-2/
> via searching "traffic stop" "right to remain silent", which has some
> other interesting hits.

Thank you for the citation.

However, my reading of it is that it merely requires a driver to "give
his or her name and address and the name and address of the owner of
such vehicle". It doesn't require you to *speak* those. Your name and
address are on your driver's license; the owner's are on the
registration.

So handing over license, insurance, and registration fulfills this
law; you don't have to say a damn thing further, except (in stop &
identify states) to state your name if detained (which is a subset of
what you do with handing over dl/ins/reg for traffic stop). Your
Seattle PI link seems to agree with that.

FWIW, I intentionally chose not to make the cards state-specific;
they're meant to be safe to act on nationwide. California, for
instance, is *not* a stop & identify state; you don't TTBOMK have to
tell the cops your name if detained.

One question I have not been able to get a precise answer for is
whether, in any S&I states, outside of a driving context, you are
required to do anything more than merely state your name (such as
provide identification). The one major court case that I saw on it
(Hiibel) seemed to me to merely require identifying yourself, not
furnishing proof thereof.

See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_and_identify_statutes#Obligation_to_identify
for more.

>> I could put it into my github if you want, though I don't much see the
>> point of that to be honest.
>
> I think it would be useful to see how the text evolves. It would also
> make it easier for others to suggest changes (eg, pull requests).

Fair enough. http://github.com/saizai/copcards

Happy bikeshedding and/or substantive improving. ;-)

- Sai