The key to it though is the last part of the ordinance. Where is that phrase defined? That is a serious question too. If it has been legally defined in VA I would really like to know because I cant find it anywhere.
The Supreme Court of Virginia considered the question in
Jones v. Commonwealth, 230 Va. 14, 334 S.E.2d 536 (1985):
Section 17-13 of the Arlington County Code is entitled "Loitering—Peace and good order." Subsection (c) provides:
It shall be unlawful for any person at a public place or place open to the public to refuse to identify himself by name and address at the request of a uniformed police officer or of a properly identified police officer not in uniform, if the surrounding circumstances are such as to indicate to a reasonable man that the public safety requires such identification.
Jones argues that § 17-13(c) is unconstitutional because it is "[v]iolative of Fourth Amendment Rights." The code section "allows police to stop citizens without any reasonable suspicion that the individual is involved in criminal activity," Jones asserts, and "does not require the police officer to have even an articulable suspicion that the individual detained is involved in, has committed, or is about to commit a crime." Jones concludes that, because it was unlawful for the police to detain and question him, his arrest for violating § 17-13(c) was also unlawful and, because the heroin was the fruit of the unlawful arrest, the evidence concerning the drug should have been suppressed.[1]
We disagree with Jones. As the Attorney General points out, § 17-13(c) does not purport to authorize a police officer to stop and question an individual on the street. Rather, as the Attorney General indicates further, criminal liability for failure to furnish identification under § 17-13(c) arises only when some independent basis justifies the detention and questioning of an individual in the first place, for example, "where a police officer observes unusual conduct which leads him reasonably to conclude in light of his experience that criminal activity may be afoot." Terry v. Ohio, 392 U.S. 1, 30, 88 S.Ct. 1868, 1884, 20 L.Ed.2d 889 (1968).
