Another instance is when you are involved with an event resulting in a police report. While the officer makes his notes on the incident giving him your ID helps make sure that the information is accurate, and that your input isn't dicarded because your name and/or address was mispelled.The Annoyed Man wrote: Further, I can think different kinds of situations in which a law abiding citizen would be well served by volunteering their ID to police. When I lived in California, my house was located in a neighborhood quite close to the Rose Bowl, and whenever there was a game or other big event there, Pasadena police would close off access to that neighborhood streets with checkpoints, to try and funnel the traffic coming into the Rose Bowl parking area into main thoroughfares, to keep it from clogging up small residential streets. On such occasions, I would have to show my ID at the checkpoints to be able to get to my own house. I didn’t mind it so much because they had no way of knowing otherwise that I lived there, and I needed to be able to come and go as needed, plus it helped to make my neighborhood easier for local residents to move about in during those events. But absent situations like that, if you feel like this is a completely unnecessary “show us your papers” moment, you should consider declining to cooperate. Then they can either find a reason to arrest you, or to let you go. You shouldn’t make oppression easier for an LEO who does not have a proper appreciation for your rights as a citizen.
One tip:
If stopped and asked to leave your vehicle .. roll the windows up and lock the car behind you.