Falsely Identification to Peace Officers

Cal. Penal Code § 148.9 provides in pertinent: any person who falsely represents or identifies himself or herself as another person or as a fictitious person to any peace officer upon a lawful detention or arrest of the person, either to evade the process of the court, or to evade the proper identification of the person by the investigating officer is guilty of a misdemeanor.

The law’s legislative history of is interesting. The statute was enacted to halt abuses of the bail deposit plan formerly contained in section 1269d which permitted certain misdemeanants to obtain bail by posting a 10 percent deposit of their bail amount. (Legal Affairs Dept., Enrolled Bill Rep., Assem. Bill No. 2583 (1981-1982 Reg. Sess.) Sept. 23, 1982.)

Persons arrested for prostitution, for example, had been giving false identification to the police, posting 10 percent of their bail and then failing to return for their court appearances. (Ibid.) To discourage this practice, section 148.9 made identifying oneself falsely to a police officer for the purpose of evading court process or proper identification a misdemeanor. (Ibid.)

An important takeaway here is that the crime requires a lawful detention or arrest. If either the detention or arrest is unlawful, so too might be the prosecution…