Afonso, J. J. R. (2008) O regime legal da identificação – reflexões sobre o instituto da detenção para efeitos de identificação. Dissertation in Master’s Degree. Coimbra: Almedina

Work focuses on the legal regime of people identification – identity
control – foreseen in the Portuguese law, within the scope of police activities. Through this, the author aims to answer a question which kept us long busy, as it generates much divergence in doctrine and jurisprudence, both in the criminal as in the administrative field.
The question is: under which circumstances and terms is it admissible for the police to identify people?
The emphasis is on the police activities (especially police in a
material sense), firstly in relation to the other administrative activities, and then to investigate whether all acts of police consubstantiate the so-called police measures. However, in order to do so, is importante to understand this concept and its implications. Once the symbiosis police and police measures is understood, the Author scrutinize the legal nature of the demand for identification and its framing in the “world” of police acts, in order to analyse, specifically, the legal identification system provided by the Portuguese law, and a comparative study with the French, Spanish and German legal sistems.
The Author conclude that, in addition to cases of suspicion onreasonable grounds, situations in which anyone is about to commit or committing an offense (only a flagrant offense in case of ongoing misconduct), preventive identification is also admissible, as an administrative police measure, and therefore, detention and subsequent conveyance to the police station for such purpose.