REFUSING TO SHOW ID IS NOT A GRIME.

• Author: Root, Damon
• Position: LAW

GEORGE WINGATE WAS driving in Stafford County, Virginia, in the early morning hours of April 25, 2017, when his car's engine light came on. A former mechanic, Wingate pulled over, popped the hood, and began checking things out. Stafford County Sheriff's Deputy Scott Fulford, who happened to be cruising by, noticed the parked vehicle and pulled over to offer his assistance.

That's when things took a turn for the worse. According to the deputy's account, he became suspicious of Wingate and demanded to see some form of identification. Wingate, who had done nothing wrong, flatly refused. The officer's microphone captured their exchange.

"Have I committed a crime?" Wingate demanded.

"No. I didn't say you did," the officer replied.

"Am I being detained? If I'm not being detained, then I'm free to go," Wingate insisted.

"You're not free to go until you identify yourself to me," the officer declared.

Wingate ultimately was arrested for violating a Stafford County ordinance that made it a crime to refuse an officer's request for ID "if the surrounding circumstances are such as to indicate to a reasonable man that the public safety requires such identification." After a local prosecutor dropped the charge, Wingate sued, arguing that his Fourth Amendment rights were violated by the bogus detention and arrest.

In February, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit agreed that Wingate's rights were violated. "To be sure, officers may always request someone's identification during a voluntary encounter," the court said in Wingate v. Fulford. "But they may not compel it by threat of criminal sanction. Allowing a county to criminalize a person's silence outside the confines of a valid seizure would press our conception of voluntary encounters beyond its logical limits. We therefore decline to do so here."

If Wingate had been lawfully detained, the 4th Circuit said, the officer could have required him to show ID. But as the...