Must you surrender your actual driver's license during a traffic stop?

Question

During a traffic stop when, as the driver, you are asked for your license (and registration if applicable), do you actually have to provide the originals, or can you provide a copy? I'm curious because I believe the following items are true:

1. A a traffic stop is not an arrest, it's a detainment (If it becomes an arrest, this question is moot.)
2. There is no search warrant, implied or otherwise. However even if there was, the parameters of the warrant would be to ensure that the license was valid which can be done with a copy just as well as with the original.
3. Assuming the license is valid, it is not evidence and thus cannot be seized
4. There is not yet a verdict of guilt with a sentence that would entail seizure of the license

My concern regarding this is that because a cop can use whatever criteria whey want to initiate a traffic stop regardless of the validity of said criteria, they can just decide to seize your license. Whether that seizure is direct or indirect, say by accidentally dropping your license in the sewer grate, or throwing into traffic, Obviously, this causes immediate and costly problems and in my mind constitutes unjust penalization that is impossible to recover in court because of qualified immunity.

To differentiate this from another question, I am not trying to create a duplicate license and pass it off as an original, nor am I trying to deceive the police into thinking I have a valid license when I don't. I'm willing to show the officer the valid license, and even allow them to compare it to the copy. It's when the officer wants to take possession of the license that I want to give the copy instead. The point is surrender, not whether creating a duplicate is legal.

Answer 1

massachusetts

Yes, you must.

MGL Part I, Title XIV, Chapter 90, Section 25:

Any person who, while operating or in charge of a motor vehicle, shall refuse, when requested by a police officer, to give his name and address or the name and address of the owner of such motor vehicle, or who shall give a false name or address, or who shall refuse or neglect to stop when signalled to stop by any police officer who is in uniform or who displays his badge conspicuously on the outside of his outer coat or garment, or who refuses, on demand of such officer, to produce his license to operate such vehicle or his certificate of registration, or to permit such officer to take the license or certificate in hand for the purpose of examination, or who refuses, on demand of such officer, to sign his name in the presence of such officer, and any person who on the demand of an officer of the police or other officer mentioned in section twenty-nine or authorized by the registrar, without a reasonable excuse fails to deliver his license to operate motor vehicles or the certificate of registration of any motor vehicle operated or owned by him or the number plates furnished by the registrar for said motor vehicle, or who refuses or neglects to produce his license when requested by a court or trial justice, shall be punished by a fine of one hundred dollars.

I would expect most states in the US to have similar statutes.

In many states (a little more than half) the driver's licenses have have security features, such as holograms, that are intended to be hard to copy in order to prevent forgery. It's likely that the police officer will need to verify the license, and providing a copy will not suffice.

Answer 2

new-south-wales

s175 of the Motor Traffic Act empowers authorised officers (which includes police) to demand the production of an Australian driver’s licence from a driver. A facsimile is not your drivers licence. Failure to do so is an offence punishable by a fine of up to 20 penalty units (currently a penalty unit is $110).

s52 allows an authorised officer to seize a licence if they have a reasonable suspicion that the licence has been unlawfully acquired or is unlawfully in the possession of the person who produced it. They then have to send it to Transport for NSW for them to decide what to do with it; including giving it back. If it is genuine, it is not an offence to be unable to produce it while it was seized.

Under s61C a person using a digital drivers licence is not required to hand the device displaying it over to the authorised officer - they can look but they can’t touch. Under s61D, the officer may require the removal of the digital drivers licence from all of their devices under s52.

Answer 3

germany

Operating most types of motor vehicle on a public road requires a license, the Führerschein. According to §36(5) StVO, the police can check this (and other things, e.g. the presence of prescribed safety equipment and if the vehicle is street-legal) without the suspicion of a crime. In this regard, pedestrians are privileged over motorists.

The motorist must carry the physical card of the license and the police must be able to verify the authenticity of this card by examining safety features. If a license is suspended, the physical token is taken away from the driver. There can be any number of photocopies, but only one original.