Warren police arrest of Amazon delivery driver raises question of showing ID to police

The video of an Amazon delivery driver getting arrested in Warren got an instant reaction from Mayor Jim Fouts and witnesses at the scene.

Neighbors said he did nothing wrong except for parking on the wrong side of the street. Police said he refused to comply with demands to give his license when asked 11 times by the responding officer and released dashcam video of the incident.

Police are pursuing a felony charge against 23-year-old Jaylen Bond for resisting arrest, failing to obey a lawful command, and failure to produce a driver's license.

RELATED: Mother of Amazon driver facing felony for parking wrong way says arrest has tormented her son

So is it a requirement to show your ID when asked by a police officer? Our legal expert, attorney Charlie Langton, answers that question here:

To make it easy, but not less complicated, the short answer is no, you do not have to show your ID or identify yourself when asked by a police officer.

Laws called 'Stop and ID' have routinely been found to be unconstitutional. Therefore, a police officer must have some reason to ask for ID.

So let’s create the first exception. If a police officer has a reasonable belief that you have committed some criminal act, you must show your ID or risk being arrested. The criminal activity can be jaywalking, drunken disorderly, trespassing, do you have a massive amount of blood on you… I’m sure there are more examples that I cannot think of right now.  In those situations, you must give your ID.

The second exception would be if you are driving a car. Driving in Michigan is not a right, it is a privilege. Therefore, if a police officer pulls you over and asks for your license, you must give it to the officer. If you don’t, you could be arrested for failure to produce the license.

Interestingly, a passenger in a car like he does not have to show an ID because being a passenger is not a crime. However, if a police officer saw that the passenger threw something out of the window concealed with what might be drugs, then yes that falls into the first exception, being involved in some possible criminal activity, and therefore an ID must be shown.  

The bottom line is most police officers only stop people when they suspect criminal activity. Therefore, to avoid a confrontation it would be better, and safer, to show your ID. Remember, you can always challenge whether or not the police officer had the right to pull you over, detain you, or ask for your ID. But that is done generally in court, not on the streets.

In the Warren story, I would say he would have been required to show ID because he was technically illegally parked. Which would be a crime. Some could argue that an improper parking ticket is actually a “civil“ infraction and not a criminal act. However, he clearly was illegally parked, there’s no right to drive, and so I would say the Amazon driver should have shown the ID.