Some states have laws (statutes) that require a person to accurately provide their identification (ID) (name, residence address, date of birth) to the police if the police have reasonable suspicion to believe (1) a crime has been committed, is being committed, or is about to be committed and (2) the person asked to provide identification is involved as a participant or as a witness. If there is no reasonable suspicion, a person does not have to provide identification—but courts often find reasonable suspicion as a matter of course.

These statutes are sometimes called stop-and-identify laws or stop and ID laws, and the violation of the statute may be a criminal offense or crime known as “failure to ID.” Stop and ID laws vary from state to state in the states that have such laws. For example, in some states failure to ID cannot be the basis for an arrest (there must be an underlying criminal offense) and in some states the obligation to provide identification only applies to a person who has been arrested.

And in some states it is a criminal offense for a person to provide a false or fictitious name, residence address, or date of birth if the person has been detained by police on the basis of reasonable suspicion or is believed to be a witness to a criminal offense.

The United States Supreme Court has held that the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution may allow suspects to refuse to give their name if they have a reasonable belief their name could be incriminating. Kolender v. Lawson, 461 U.S. 352 (1983).

In Arizona, the law aligns with what are known as 'stop-and-identify' statutes. Under Arizona Revised Statutes § 13-2412, it is a criminal offense for a person to refuse to provide their true full name when lawfully detained by a law enforcement officer based on reasonable suspicion that the person has committed, is committing, or is about to commit a crime. However, the statute does not require a person to provide additional information such as residence address or date of birth unless they have been arrested. It is also a criminal offense under Arizona law (ARS § 13-2006) to provide a false identity to a law enforcement officer. The U.S. Supreme Court's ruling in Kolender v. Lawson acknowledges that under the Fifth Amendment, individuals may refuse to provide their name if doing so could be self-incriminating. However, this constitutional protection would be weighed against the state's statutes in any legal proceedings.