OTOH, if the officer says, "no" or refuses to answer, then the subject may inform the officer that "If you are not arresting me, I'm not moving etc". There are exceptions such as traffic detours, emergencues of all sorts including floods and hurricanes where you must move to a certain place and, of course, crime scenes. FWIW, I doubt whether Dao was arrested, and I doubt if the airport cop would have touched him if Dao had asked the question.
Ten bucks says that since 9/11 those rules don't apply to commercial aircraft...for better or for worse.
What they actually did was drag him from the plane, dump him on the ground, walk away.