I have always wondered why police demand ID from a passenger riding in a car when the driver is stopped for a minor traffic violation.
What is the probable cause to question and to detain someone for riding in a car that was stopped for a minor infraction?
Anybody?
I would like to know, too.
Maybe there’s a supreme court ruling that says we give up our own 4th amendment rights if the person we’re riding with does something stupid.
Any number of justifications and they start with maintaining control of the situation. Suppose the passenger has carjacked and is holding a hidden gun on the driver? Suppose THIS man with open arrest warrants goes on to do something worse and it comes out that this stop was made and the officer failed to identify?
It is a legitimate stop for a safety reason and an idiot got removed from the gene pool because he forcibly resisted arrest! If he was the misidentified innocent his family claims, why resist?
Good question. I don’t carry my driver’s license unless I’m driving.
In Texas at least, to ask for ID does not require probable cause. TX law requires everyone over 17 to have some type of ID. Also, all passengers in a car can be questioned as a result of the traffic infraction since all of them are technically ‘temporarily detained’. Usually the passengers are questioned based on the behavior, attitude, or stories of the driver and/or passengers, but the identity of the passengers can also be confirmed as part of officer safety protocols.
If you were a fugitive from the law and the police couldn’t ask for ID from the passenger, would you be driver or passenger?
On a traffic stop, all persons in the vehicle are considered detained.
Fishing.