Vous êtes nombreux à vouloir attendre une raison valable avant de montrer vos papiers, tandis que nous nous les montrons immédiatement. En France les contrôles sont assez fréquents (et parfois effectués à cause de certains préjugés), les policiers ne demandent donc pas les papiers uniquement en cas d'infraction. Ce n'est pas le cas chez vous? On ne vous demande vos papiers que si vous avez fait quelque chose de particulier? 

In the U.S. you are usually not asked to show identification unless there is some sort of problem, like being accused of doing something illegal. We would often suggest checks like that here would be due to prejudice or someone pretending to be a cop trying to steal your identity. Why would the police ask for your identification if you did nothing wrong?

To add to what Amber said, you are only required to show ID when you are travelling by plane or driving.It is a good idea to generally carry it around though.

I've only seen people get asked for ID when they were trying to buy some product that requires you to be a certain age or if they were being issued a ticket for doing something wrong. Here in the US, one state passed a law that allows police to inquire about someone's legal status, however this law targets a certain group. Do the police in France ask to see identification for the same reason and tend to target certain groups more than others?

to add to what everyone says, I thought it was very interesting - one of the few things where you see such a clear division of practices in the two cultures - you have the French who all except for 1 student don't question being asked for ID while a little more than half of the Americans would give their ID without at least a bit of a fight. Is it because the Police in France have somewhat of a greater power?

In the United States, there are a lot more instances of corrupt policemen or conmen pretending to be policemen. There are a lot of cases of stolen identities in the United States. In France, is it common for people to get their identities stolen? Is this something that you do not have to worry about too much? Why do you think this is the case?

@Lucy:

En france nous avons environs 210 000 usurpation d'identités par ans. Regarder l'article suivant si vous voulez plus d'info 

http://www.lefigaro.fr/actualite-france/2009/10/06/01016-20091006ARTFIG0...

I was very surprised when I read how many people are sceptical about the identity of a police officer. How does that work in this situation? Somebodye even mentioned rape?

And then somebody said that this is not legal? Is that true? How come? How much of a liberty does police have in both countries?

For example, since it's common in France for a police officer to ask for you id, can they also walk you to the station and ask a few questions? Can they check your legal status?

And the fear of id theft, rape, assult, etc. is obviously greater with American students. Is that because there is more street crime in the US than in France? Or Americans have been raised to be more cautious, while French more open? How dangerous is it to grow up on the streets of France versus streets of US?

Wow ... talk about a clear difference between the two. American students would question or demand the purpose of showing the police officer their papers, while French students would do as asked without any fuss. I think American students may do so because in the past we had been instructed to verify the police officer's badge and intents before showing our IDs or complying with their requests, since there had been incidents of impostors robbing citizens. Why is it that French students show their papers willingly to the police if asked, without question?

(Interestingly enough, I had been in this scenario before while visiting Paris and had presented my passport along with my friend's papers while going home... do as the Romans do while in Rome, I suppose.)

Je pense qu'en France si jamais on refuse de montrer nos papiers et demandons une raison valable, la réponse de l'agent de police risque d'être: "Hé bien, nous allons vérifier votre identité au poste". Alors, personnellement, je préfère leur répondre sans trop poser de question et sans trop les énerver.

Parmi les réponses des étudiants américains, il y a quelqu'un qui a dit que ce n'était pas légal. En France on peut même vous demander une pièce d'identité à la caisse d'un super marché. Est ce possible aux Etat-Unis ?

Yes, here in the U.S. you can be asked to show identification when paying at a store.  I think that maybe when people talk about whether it is legal for a police officer to ask for identification, they are referring to the idea that we have the right to know why we are being asked, and if they refuse to tell us, something is wrong.

Is this also the case in France, or can you be asked to identify yourself without having the right to be told why if you ask?

In the U.S., you can be asked for identification at supermarkets, but it is usually because you are purchasing alcohol or tabacco. You can also be asked to show your identification if you are using a credit card so the employee can verify your signature.

Also, what kinds of things would the officer be checking for if he asked for your ID?

Bonjour,

Je ne sais pas comment ça se passe aux USA, mais s'il y a autant de controle en France je pense que c'est à cause, pour une grande majorité, de l'immigration.

Nous savons actuellement que le monde entier souffre de l'immigration clandestine notamment les pays devoloppés comme la france et donc par consequent ils se trouvent confrontés à plusieurs personnes en situation irréguliere.

@Ilyass

Je pense qu'au niveau immigration clandestine, les Etats Unis doivent en avoir pas mal, venant du Mexique, donc pour moi, c'est une explication, mais pas la seule. Mais tu as quand même raison de le souligner.

En France, un officier de police peut demander à n'importe quel personne de s'identifier (nous devons posséder une carte d'identité à partir de 12 ans, il me semble). Et, même si ce n'est pas justifié, si quelqu'un demande des comptes à l'officier, il n'a qu'à espérer que ce dernier ne soit pas de mauvaise humeur. Pour résumer, si un officier de police nous demande notre carte d'identité, on obtempère sans poser trop de questions.

It's somewhat amusing. Americans become really defensive when it comes to certain 'rights' (to remain anonymous?) but on the other hand they are also the main source of all the new regulations in airports which are far more invasive.

Do the French have certain privacy rights that people really, really care about? For example, I remember that Australia kicked out google's street view over privacy issues.

I think we have a culture of paranoia. You can see from some of the other responses, such as people being suspicious of what a random smiling person. One got into specifics and stated that the person might want to kill and kidnap them. Even though in the grand scheme of things most of us are pretty safe, I think we are taught here to trust no one while other people are taught to handle things as they come and use their own ability to discern a potentially dangerous situation from a safe one. This again goes back to the once in a blue moon news story that makes people question the identity of police officers that stop them. It is amusing how people resist giving a figure of authority their identification but at the same time puts that same information (and more) up on Facebook willingly.

I do not think it is simply paranoia in the case of the police officer.  In an effort to promote fairness under the law, police officers are not allowed to stop civilians without giving a reason (although they usually can come up with a reason to stop you).  That is why it would seem very strange for a police officer to stop us without giving a reason and cause us to question it.

In other scenarios, like the stranger in the street, our response may have something to do with paranoia.  Once you experience a run in with a hostile person or hear of it happening to someone you know, you can't help but be a little cautious. 

@ Benji

vThis is very interesting. According to my research, there are about 27.3 million Victims of identity theft in 5 years in the United States.

http://www.ftc.gov/opa/2003/09/idtheft.shtm

Perhaps herein lies the reason as to why Americans guard their identifications very closely. We are taught as children not to show our identitification documents unless there is a legitimate reason. We take extra precautions to not reveal our birthdates, our addresses, etc because identity theft is so common in the United States. I have a friend who had his credit card information hacked twice in the past year alone. Why do you think there is more identity theft in the US? Granted we have a greater population than France but is it because there are more credit cards in the US? Do the French usually each have a credit card? Do many have more than one?

This has actually reminded about what the International Student Office told us when we first came here. As international students, we are obligated to show the officer our ID anytime we're asked for(sometime they dont even need a reason to). But the good thing is that, it doesn't have to be our passport(coz of course who wanna carry a passport around at all time), there is a form called I20 which we can use to show our F1-student status in the United State.

Although I think the double-standard of US law for citizen and non-citizen in almost everything is really annoying, if we looked at the statistic like the one Lucy has shown, it's sometime understandable for them to do so to prevent illegal identity theft especially among immigrant.

To go along with Jelle's question and someone mentioned above that in France there have also been cases of false identity - do you think it's because we always see it in television that Americans get the idea that people are out to "get them" and therefore care about those rights? Because they want to keep themselves from being victimized?

@Romain: What is  "au poste?" Is it a police station?

@HoYin

Tu as tout à fait compris le poste refère bien a polica station.

Je voulais aussi revenir sur la réaction des policiers quand on a pas les papiers. Je ne pense pas qu'ils ne vous emmenent pas  nécessairement au poste. J'ai cru comprendre qu'en France, les policiers ont une base de données centralisée qui permet de vérifier l'identité des personnes si vous n'avez pas votre carte sur vous. ( J'ai pu le constater avec ma tante y'a quelques mois lorsqu'elle s'est fait arreté sans pièce d'identité) et, pour l'avoir vécu il y'a quelques jours, si vous arrivez à repondre aux questions posées par les policiers normalement, ils vous laissent partir sans souci.

@Lucy

Je ne sais pas pourquoi il y'a plus de vol d'identité aux Etats Unis qu'en France mais je sais que généralement en France en ce qui concerne les cartes d'identités, les personnes récupèrent juste les numéros de carte et les mots de passent pour faire des achats sans pour autant usurper l'identité.

Pour finir je pense comme l'a soulevé Amy que la télévision peut être un incitateur à la paranoïa. J'ai par exemple vu à la télé il y'a quelques mois que les français intervenaient de moins en moins quand quelqu'un était agressé en leur présence car ils avaient peur de se faire agresser eux mêmes. Cela est dû soit disant au sentiment de peur amené  avec les banlieus qui brulent, la racaille, les conflits entre jeunes,etc. Et tous ces maux sont montrés à la  télévision.

Thanks Sambala =) Having a central database makes sense

Also, I found this interesting bit on today's Le Monde: http://www.lemonde.fr/politique/article/2011/03/10/securite-le-conseil-c... :

« Censurées également, des dispositions accordant aux policiers municipaux des pouvoirs de police judiciaire, tels que la possibilité de procéder à des contrôles d'identité. »

If I understand it correctly, it sounds like the Constitutional Council's decision limits municipal police from doing ID checks?

Apparemment, tu as raison : Le pouvoir de la police municipale semble s'amoindrir. Il n'empêche que les controle d'identité peuvent se faire dans des cadres plus précis : J'ai recemment vu un homme se faire embarqué car il n'avais pas de papier d'identité valide sur lui. J'étais à la gare. Les force de l'ordre travaillaient pour la sécurité de la gare dnas le plan vigi-pirate.
Ce que je veux dire, c'est que l'on ne pourra pas nous arrêter dans la rue n'importe où, pour nous demander notre identité. Par contre, dans touts lieu public sensible, telles que les gares ou les aéroports, cela ne changera rien. Donc pour conclure, tous cela ne change pas grand chose. Même lorsque vous êtes sur la route, un policier peut vous demander votre permis de conduire, qui est consideré comme une pièce d'identité.

Je reviens sur ce que j'ai dit : la police municipale n'a effectivement jamais eu le droit de faire des contrôles d'identité. Leur rôle se limite à faire respecter "le bon ordre, la sûreté, la sécurité et la salubrité publiques". Leur pouvoir ne diminue donc pas, c'est toujours le même. Le suite de ce que j'ai dit me semble rester vraie.

@Jérome: Thanks for clearing things up!