Privacy / P4
Papers on the street
The person is walking down a public street with no identity document on them. They are not suspected of anything. A police officer stops them and asks who they are and to see ID.
What we score
Must they carry ID, must they identify themselves, and what happens if they decline?
Default assumptions: Unless a vignette says otherwise, the person is a 30-year-old citizen of sound mind with no criminal record, acting alone, on their own behalf and not for profit, in an ordinary residential area. Where subnational units (states, provinces, cantons, Länder) make their own law, each unit is scored and the result is weighted by population. 'The state' includes police, prosecutors, courts, regulators, tax authorities and anyone acting on their orders, including platforms obeying takedown orders.
Score anchors
Both the law score and the practice score use these anchors. Half points are used when a country sits between two of them.
| Score | What it means for this vignette |
|---|---|
| 10 | No duty to carry ID or to give a name unless arrested; police need suspicion even to stop them, and walking away is lawful. |
| 8 | No duty to carry ID; must give a name only when reasonably suspected of an offence. |
| 6 | No duty to carry ID, but must identify themselves on demand when police give a lawful reason; refusal means a fine or being held briefly to establish identity. |
| 4 | Must carry ID or show it on request; refusal is fined. Checks need some stated ground. |
| 2 | Must carry national ID at all times and show it on demand without any ground; refusal is a crime or leads to detention. |
| 0 | Internal passports or residence permits are checked routinely to control where people may be; people without papers are detained or expelled from the city. |
Evidence used: ID card and carry laws; stop-and-identify statutes; police powers to demand identity and detain for identification; how often street checks happen and to whom.
How each country scores
| Country | Law | Practice | Process | Score | Why |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Zealand | 10 | 9.5 | 0 | 9.7 | New Zealand has no national identity card and no law requiring anyone to carry ID. Outside specific powers (a driver stopped under Land Transport Act 1998 ss113-114, or a person suspected of an alcohol offence under Sale and Supply of Alcohol Act 2012 s269), police cannot require a pedestrian who is not under arrest to give a name, address or other details, and a person not arrested may walk away. Only after arrest must a person give identifying particulars and be photographed and fingerprinted (Policing Act 2008 s32). No data on how often police ask passers-by for ID were found; declining carries no penalty. |
| United Kingdom | 8.5 | 9 | 0 | 8.8 | The UK has no identity card and no duty to carry ID. In England and Wales a person stopped and questioned 'does not have to stop or answer any questions', and refusing cannot alone justify a search or arrest; a name and address must be given only to a uniformed constable who believes the person has engaged in anti-social behaviour (Police Reform Act 2002 s50, level 3 fine). Scotland requires name, address and date of birth only from a person reasonably suspected of an offence, who may be held while it is verified (Criminal Procedure (Scotland) Act 1995 s13, level 3 fine). Northern Ireland (about 3% of the population) lets police or soldiers stop anyone without suspicion to question them about identity and movements, with refusal punishable by a level 5 fine (Justice and Security (NI) Act 2007 s21); we found no current usage figures for that power. Weighted: about 0.88×9 + 0.08×8 + 0.03×5. |
| Ireland | 8.5 | 8.5 | 0 | 8.5 | Ireland has no national identity card and no law requiring a citizen to carry ID; the duty to produce a passport or registration certificate on demand (Immigration Act 2004 s12, up to 12 months under s13) applies only to non-nationals. Gardaí may ask anyone questions, but a citizen must give a name and address only when reasonably suspected of particular offences, e.g. Criminal Justice (Public Order) Act 1994 s24 (refusal: fine up to €1,000 or 6 months), and stop powers such as Offences Against the State Act 1939 s30 also require suspicion. A person not suspected of anything may decline and walk away. I found no data on street identity checks of citizens; the score sits above anchor 8 because the name duty attaches only to listed offences, not to any suspected offence. |
| United States | 9 | 8 | −0.5 | 7.9 | No US law requires a citizen to carry ID on foot. Police may approach and ask, but a person not suspected of anything may refuse and walk away; detaining someone to demand ID without reasonable suspicion violates the Fourth Amendment (Brown v. Texas, 1979). About 23 states with roughly 40% of the population have stop-and-identify statutes that require a name (not a document) only during a stop based on reasonable suspicion, with refusal a misdemeanour (upheld in Hiibel v. Nevada, 2004; scored 8); elsewhere, e.g. Texas Penal Code 38.02, a name is owed only after arrest (10). In practice, the Supreme Court's Sept 2025 stay in Noem v. Vasquez Perdomo let immigration agents stop people using apparent ethnicity, Spanish and location as factors, and ProPublica counted more than 170 citizens held by immigration agents in 2025, some for over a day while their identity was disputed; this lowers df and sets the process penalty. |
| Australia | 8 | 7.5 | 0 | 7.7 | Australia has no national ID card and no duty to carry identification on foot. Police may demand identity only in defined circumstances: in NSW when they reasonably suspect the person can help investigate an indictable offence they were near, or before giving a move-on direction (LEPRA s 11), with refusal a 2-penalty-unit fine (s 12); Victoria, Queensland and WA have similar suspicion- or witness-based powers. Absent those grounds a person may decline and walk away. In practice street checks fall disproportionately on young and Aboriginal people, and refusals can escalate to move-on directions or hindering charges. |
| Mexico | 8 | 5.5 | −0.5 | 6.0 | Mexico has no duty to carry ID: Ley General de Población art. 106 says no one may be sanctioned for not carrying the identity card, and the 2025 biometric CURP (art. 91 Bis) is an identification document, not a carry obligation. Constitution art. 16 bars any 'molestia' without a legal basis, art. 11 guarantees travel without a 'carta de seguridad' or similar papers, and under the CNPP only a charged person (imputado) must state their identity; CDMX's Ley de Cultura Cívica has no offence of refusing to identify. Immigration officers may run checks inside the country to verify foreigners' status (Ley de Migración art. 97), which in practice reaches citizens who cannot prove nationality. Street stops and 'revisiones' with no stated ground are common, and contact with public-security officials is the government contact with the most corruption (63.5% of contacts in 2025, INEGI ENCIG); no national data on ID checks exists. |
| Czechia | 5.5 | 6 | 0 | 5.8 | Czechs over 15 must have an ID card (Act 269/2021 § 3) but no law requires carrying it. Police Act § 63(2) lets officers demand proof of identity from people in listed situations, including a catch-all 'when necessary to protect the safety of persons and property, public order or to prevent crime'; anyone who refuses or cannot prove identity may be taken to a station and held up to 24 hours (§§ 63(3), 64), and ignoring an officer's call is an offence fined up to 10,000 CZK (Act 251/2016 § 5). No data on how often street checks happen was found; identity can be proved by giving one's details for a registry check. |
| Germany | 5.5 | 6 | 0 | 5.8 | Germans over 16 must own an ID card but need not carry it (§ 1(1) PAuswG). They must give their name, address and date of birth when an officer has a legal basis to ask; refusing is an administrative offence with a fine of up to €1,000 (§ 111 OWiG). Police need a ground, such as suspicion (§ 163b StPO) or a danger, but Land police laws and § 23 BPolG also allow checks without suspicion at designated 'dangerous places', railway stations and within 30 km of the border, and Bavaria's Art. 13 PAG adds major transit routes. A person who cannot be identified can be held at the station, for up to 12 hours under § 163c StPO. No national statistics on street checks exist. |
| Switzerland | 6 | 5.5 | 0 | 5.7 | No law requires carrying ID: in BGE 109 Ia 146 the Federal Supreme Court held that a sanctioned duty to carry papers would amount to a ban on leaving home without a visa, and that a stop needs 'minimal objective reasons', though even weak indications suffice. Police may stop a person, demand personal details and ID, and take them to the station to establish identity (Criminal Procedure Code Art. 215; cantonal police laws on the same model). Refusal is punishable as obstruction (Art. 286, up to 30 daily units) or disobeying an official order (Art. 292, fine). In Wa Baile v. Switzerland (2024), a man stopped at Zurich station without objective grounds was searched and fined CHF 100 for refusing; the ECtHR found that Switzerland had failed to examine his racial-profiling complaint. |
| Denmark | 5 | 6 | 0 | 5.6 | Denmark has no compulsory identity card and no duty to carry ID. But retsplejeloven § 750 obliges 'everyone', on police demand, to give their name, address and date of birth; the demand needs no suspicion or stated ground, and refusal is punishable by a fine. Because refusal is itself an offence, police can arrest to establish identity under § 755, limited by the proportionality bar in § 755(4). I found no data on how often street identity demands are made; outside stop-and-search zones (politiloven § 6) and border controls, suspicionless checks of citizens are not reported as routine, so df rests on the law. |
| China | 5.5 | 4 | 0 | 4.6 | No law requires carrying an ID card. Under Resident Identity Card Law Art. 15, police may check ID when someone is suspected of an offence, at scene controls or emergencies, at stations and airports, and at places designated during major events; refusal is 'handled according to law'. Under People's Police Law Art. 9, a person suspected and of unknown identity can be taken in and held for questioning for 24 to 48 hours. In practice, checks at stations and in big cities during sensitive dates are routine. In Xinjiang (about 2% of the population with Tibet), checkpoints require Uyghurs to scan ID cards and faces to enter cities, markets and mosques, and political 'liabilities' are sent back to their hukou location. Those regions were weighted by population. |
| Netherlands | 4 | 4 | 0 | 4.0 | There is no duty to carry ID as such, but everyone aged 14 or over must show a valid identity document on the first demand of a police officer (art. 2 Wet op de identificatieplicht), and officers may demand it whenever 'reasonably necessary for the performance of the police task' (art. 8 Politiewet 2012), which requires no suspicion of an offence. Failing to show ID is an offence under art. 447e Sr, punishable by a second-category fine (up to EUR 5,500 from 1 January 2026), and police tell the public plainly that not showing ID can mean a fine. Since refusal is itself an offence, officers can also arrest on the spot (art. 53 Sv) and hold the person to establish identity. No national statistics on ID checks or 447e fines were found, so df follows the law. |
| Singapore | 3 | 4 | 0 | 3.6 | Citizens and permanent residents aged 15+ must register and hold an NRIC, and under reg 7(1) of the National Registration Regulations a police officer 'may at any time' require any person to produce it for inspection, or to produce it later at a time and place the officer sets, so there is no strict carry duty but no ground is needed. Failing to comply is an offence under reg 20(g): up to 2 years and/or S$3,000 (compoundable). Under s22(1)(b) of the National Registration Act a person who does not give their name and address on demand, or gives one the officer believes false, may be arrested without warrant. Police spot-check NRICs in public, but we found no published statistics on how often or of whom. |
| Israel | 3 | 4 | −0.5 | 3.1 | Every resident aged 16 or over must carry an identity card at all times and show it to a police officer or soldier performing their duties on demand, with no suspicion needed (Identity Card Carrying and Displaying Law s.2). The penalty is a NIS 5,000 fine, but no one may be prosecuted if they show the card at a police station within five days (s.4). Police may detain a person to establish identity only on reasonable suspicion of an offence (Arrests Law s.67). ID checks are common in Jerusalem and at protests, and fall disproportionately on Arab and Ethiopian-Israeli citizens. |