2011 Wisconsin Code
Chapter 346. Rules of the road.
346.04 Obedience to traffic officers, signs and signals; fleeing from officer.

346.04

346.04 Obedience to traffic officers, signs and signals; fleeing from officer.

346.04(1)

(1) No person shall fail or refuse to comply with any lawful order, signal or direction of a traffic officer.

346.04(2)

(2) No operator of a vehicle shall disobey the instructions of any official traffic sign or signal unless otherwise directed by a traffic officer.

346.04(2t)

(2t) No operator of a vehicle, after having received a visible or audible signal to stop his or her vehicle from a traffic officer or marked police vehicle, shall knowingly resist the traffic officer by failing to stop his or her vehicle as promptly as safety reasonably permits.

346.04(3)

(3) No operator of a vehicle, after having received a visual or audible signal from a traffic officer, or marked police vehicle, shall knowingly flee or attempt to elude any traffic officer by willful or wanton disregard of such signal so as to interfere with or endanger the operation of the police vehicle, or the traffic officer or other vehicles or pedestrians, nor shall the operator increase the speed of the operator's vehicle or extinguish the lights of the vehicle in an attempt to elude or flee.

346.04(4)

(4) Subsection (2t) is not an included offense of sub. (3), but a person may not be convicted of violating both subs. (2t) and (3) for acts arising out of the same incident or occurrence.

346.04 - ANNOT.

History: 1991 a. 316; 2001 a. 109.

346.04 - ANNOT.

That an officer was driving a vehicle equipped with red lights and siren was insufficient to prove that vehicle was "marked" under sub. (3). State v. Oppermann, 156 Wis. 2d 241, 456 N.W.2d 625 (Ct. App. 1990).

346.04 - ANNOT.

The knowledge requirement in sub. (3) applies only to fleeing or attempting to elude an officer. The statute does not require the operator of a fleeing vehicle to actually interfere with or endanger identifiable vehicles or persons; he or she need only drive in a manner that creates a risk or likelihood of that occurring. State v. Sterzinger, 2002 WI App 171, 256 Wis. 2d 925, 649 N.W.2d 677, 01-1440.

346.04 - ANNOT.

A motor vehicle operator can be fleeing and eluding the police under sub. (3) if that operator is ostensibly driving to a police station. If that operator has willfully disregarded a visual signal from any officer so as to interfere with the operation of traffic or pedestrians, the operator's intended destination is irrelevant. State v. Hanson, 2010 WI App 146, ___ Wis. 2d ___, ___ N.W.2d ___, 08-2759.

346.04 - ANNOT.

An unmarked police vehicle displaying red and blue lights is not a marked vehicle for purposes of sub. (3). Section 346.19, regarding the requirements on the approach of an emergency vehicle, is the proper statute to invoke when the proof requirements for fleeing under s. 346.04 are not met. 76 Atty. Gen. 214.