Penal Code § 148.9 PC – Giving False ID to a Police Officer

Penal Code § 148.9 PC makes it a crime to provide false identification to a California police officer. Doing so is a misdemeanor punishable by up to 6 months in jail and a fine of up to $1000.00.

The full language of the code section reads as follows:

148.9. (a) Any person who falsely represents or identifies himself or herself as another person or as a fictitious person to any peace officer listed in Section 830.1 or 830.2, or subdivision (a) of Section 830.33, 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.

(b) Any person who falsely represents or identifies himself or herself as another person or as a fictitious person to any other peace officer defined in Chapter 4.5 (commencing with Section 830) of Title 3 of Part 2, upon 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 arresting officer is guilty of a misdemeanor if (1) the false information is given while the peace officer is engaged in the performance of his or her duties as a peace officer and (2) the person providing the false information knows or should have known that the person receiving the information is a peace officer.

Remember that you generally do not have to identify yourself to the police in California unless it is part of a lawful detention or arrest. However, it can be a crime under this section if you identify yourself and do so falsely.

Our California criminal defense attorneys will explain the following in this article:

• 1. Elements of The Crime
• 2. Best Defenses
• 3. Penalties
• 4. Immigration Consequences
• 5. Expungement
• 6. Effect on Gun Rights
• 7. Related Crimes
• Additional Reading

1. Elements of The Crime

Penal Code 148.9 PC is the California statute that makes it a crime to provide false identification to a police officer knowingly.¹

A prosecutor must prove three things to convict you of this crime successfully. These are:

1. you knowingly provided a fake name, or the name of another person to a police officer,
2. you provided this name after being lawfully detained or arrested, and
3. you gave the fake or false name to avoid the court process or to avoid proper identification.²

As to the second element above, there must be detention or an arrest for PC 148.9 to apply. This means that it is not a crime to provide false identification during a consensual encounter with a police officer.³

Note that “false identification” includes giving police a false birthdate.⁴

2. Best Defenses

Here at Shouse Law Group, we have represented literally thousands of people charged with fraud crimes, including providing false IDs to police officers. In our experience, the following three defenses have proven very effective with prosecutors and judges.

There was no detention or arrest

We have had cases where our client was engaged in a consensual conversation with an officer when they offered a fake name. This is not a PC 148.9 violation because no detention or arrest occurred yet.

We rely on evidence such as police bodycam and dashcam footage, surveillance video, and eyewitness accounts to prove the police did not detain or arrest you before you gave them a fake ID. The charge should be dropped once the D.A. sees that the order of events was legal.

You did not act knowingly

It is not a crime to mistakenly provide a fake ID to police officers. We see this happen frequently, especially since people are understandably nervous after being detained or arrested.

Sometimes, defendants carry both a genuine ID and a fake ID on them, and they accidentally hand police the fake one. During the stress of being questioned, defendants sometimes speak gibberish and provide false information out of sheer anxiety.

Criminal charges cannot stand unless the prosecutors can prove beyond a reasonable doubt that you intended to provide false information, which is a very high bar.

The police committed an unlawful search and seizure

It is not uncommon for police to make mistakes, such as by committing an unlawful search by:

• not getting a search warrant;
• searching outside the bounds of the warrant; or
• conducting a warrantless search without a lawful justification.

Whenever the police may have committed an unlawful search, we ask the judge to suppress any evidence the police obtained through the unlawful search.

If the judge agrees to suppress the evidence – which in PC 148.9 cases could include a fake ID or text messages indicating an intention to deceive the police – the D.A. may be left with too weak a case to continue prosecuting.

3. Penalties

A violation of this statute is charged as a misdemeanor in California.⁵

The crime is punishable by:

• imprisonment in county jail for up to six months, and/or
• a maximum fine of $1,000.⁶

Please note that a judge may award you a misdemeanor (or summary probation) in lieu of jail time.

4. Immigration Consequences

A PC 148.9 conviction generally has no negative immigration consequences.

Note that under United States immigration law, certain criminal convictions in California can lead to a non-citizen being deported. Some convictions can also make an immigrant “inadmissible.”

A conviction for false identification to police, on its own, will not lead to deportation or to an inadmissibility status.

Further, concerning immigration consequences, a crime of false identification is not a crime of moral turpitude.⁷

5. Expungement

If you are convicted under PC 148.9, you can try to get the offense expunged.

Under Penal Code 1203.4, an expungement releases you from virtually “all penalties and disabilities” arising out of the conviction.⁸

One benefit is that an expunged conviction must not be disclosed to potential employers.

As a basic rule, PC 1203.4 authorizes an expungement for a misdemeanor or felony offense provided you:

1. successfully completed probation (either felony probation or misdemeanor probation), and
2. are not currently:

• charged with a criminal offense,
• on probation for a criminal offense, or
• serving a sentence for a criminal offense.⁹

This means that once you have successfully completed probation for violating PC 148.9, or serving a jail term for the same, you may begin trying to get the crime expunged.

6. Effect on Gun Rights

A conviction under Penal Code 148.9 does not affect your gun rights.

Note that some felony and misdemeanor convictions will result in you losing your rights to own a gun in California.

Also, note that some misdemeanors carry a 10-year firearm ban.

However, a conviction involving false identification will not result in the loss of ownership of your gun or the ban on using it for a period of time.

7. Related Crimes

There are three crimes related to false identification to a police officer. These are:

1. False impersonation – Penal Code 529 PC,
2. Resisting arrest – Penal Code 148 PC, and
3. False statements/information to a police officer – Vehicle Code 31 VC.

Additional reading

For more in-depth information, refer to these articles:

• Stars in Their Lies: How Better to Identify People Who Give False Dates of Birth to Police – Policing.
• Fake I.D. – Is it worth the Risk? – The Observer.
• You shall not pass: how facial variability and feedback affect the detection of low-prevalence fake IDs – Cognitive Research: Principles and Implications.
• Understanding Identity Theft: Offenders’ Accounts of Their Lives and Crimes – Criminal Justice Review.
• Blurred Lines of Identity Crimes: Intersection of the First Amendment and Federal Identity Fraud – Columbia Law Review.

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