LA PORTE, Indiana - August 13, 2010  - During a recent neighborhood sweep in the city of La Porte, officers and deputies from the La Porte Police and County Sheriff’s departments stopped people at random to check their IDs.

But some area residents have been questioning the legality of such a sweep, and whether or not officers had the right to do what they did.

So exactly what can police officers and sheriff’s deputies do in Indiana?

According to La Porte County Sheriff Michael Mollenhauer, who helped conduct the sweep along with the La Porte Police Department, they have the right to stop people on public property whether it be on the sidewalk or the street, and ask for their IDs. This also goes for whether they’re on foot or in the car.

But people are not required by law to surrender their IDs to them, he added, unless an officer believes in good faith they committed an infraction or ordinance violation. Officers are also allowed to check and see if they’re wanted for any warrants, and pat them down if there’s reason to suspect they’re carrying a weapon.

He said officers and deputies can also go door to door and ask for IDs, but people have no obligation to give it to them unless there’s a warrant. Asking people for their IDs in their own yard is also permissible, especially if an officer observed them getting to their yard by way of a public property.

“They can step off the sidewalk and be in somebody else’s yard and you don’t know if it’s their own yard or not,” he said. “How do we know it’s their own yard if we don’t see that identification?”

During the search, officers randomly checked people on the sidewalks and streets, he said. Some motorists were also stopped for their IDs and registrations.

He said officers did not go door to door, and they did not check the IDs of the people sitting on their porches. But they did talk to the latter group at length, he pointed out, and obtained a lot of useful information about the neighborhood.