Q: What is the best thing to do to avoid being identified by police if I’m a passenger in the vehicle? I have a warrant and don’t want to go to jail.
A: I’ve never been in your situation, and I can’t imagine the chronic stress you’re dealing with when so much of your mental energy is consumed by worrying that each time you leave your house your end destination might be jail. However, I have met people who were in your circumstances, and some of them have said it was a relief when they finally got arrested because they no longer had to live in fear of getting caught, so let’s start there.
Your warrant isn’t going to go away on its own. All you’re doing by avoiding it is delaying the inevitable. My first recommendation would be to contact the court that issued the warrant and pay the bail, post the bond, file a motion to quash the warrant or turn yourself in. But you didn’t ask for that answer.
Assuming you choose to ignore that advice, be very selective about whom you decide to ride with. The best way to avoid being identified in a traffic stop is to not get pulled over. It’s kind of like some advice I got years ago about how to avoid getting punched in a fight: don’t be there. In theory this shouldn’t be too difficult. Police pull over roughly 20 million drivers a year in the US, a country with over 220 million drivers. That works out to about one traffic stop per driver every eleven years on average. But averages don’t tell the story. The many drivers that go decades without being pulled over are offset by the folks who make it a habit.
Let’s say you chose poorly, and your driver gets pulled over. Your next best move is to make sure you’re not giving the officer a reason to demand your identification. Wear your seatbelt. Don’t have an open container of alcohol in your lap. It seems obvious, but it happens. The law states that if an officer asks you to identify yourself in connection with an investigation of a traffic infraction, you have a duty to do so and provide your current address. So don’t give the officer a reason to investigate.
If, despite your driver getting stopped, you have committed no violation for the officer to investigate, can the officer request your identification? According to case law in State v. Rankin, yes. An officer conducting a traffic stop in which the passenger is under no suspicion can still ask the passenger for identification. However, it is a request, not a demand. Therefore, if you so choose, you could politely decline to identify yourself. Of course, if the officer making the traffic stop happens to recognize you and knows you have a warrant (unlikely, but it does happen more frequently than you might think), your plan to wear a seatbelt and remain quiet won’t keep you out of jail.
As I said in the beginning, I think taking care of your warrant is your best choice of action. But during the time that you’re contemplating that decision, I can see an upside. With you in the passenger seat, you’re motivated to encourage your driving friends to abide by traffic laws. Maybe if you ride with your friends for a while, your constant pestering to obey the law so that you don’t get arrested will create some lasting behavior change. Whatever the motivation, when more drivers obey traffic laws it’s safer for all of us on the road.