When Tucker Nee bought a fake ID for his first semester at UF, he didn’t realize that in two months, he’d be spending a night in the Alachua County Jail. What followed was 11 months of court proceedings and attorney fees, resulting in a mark on his permanent record.
“I understood it was against the law,” Nee said. “I did not realize it was such a serious thing. I wish I had.”
Nee, a 19-year-old UF finance sophomore, was arrested in October 2023 for disorderly intoxication, possessing a fake ID and nonviolently resisting arrest. He was 18-years-old at the time of the arrest. Nee doesn’t remember his encounter with the UF Police Department, only that one moment he was in a bar with his friends, and the next he was waking up in jail, he said.
“It was just like, ‘Oh my God,’” he said. “I just sat there, tried to be brave, I guess.”
In Florida, possessing a fake ID is a felony. If the charges go through, the resulting sentence can mean up to five years in prison, five years on probation and fines up to $5,000.
Yet despite the heavy consequences, fake IDs are still a common part of UF student culture. According to data from UPD, fake IDs made up nearly one in four UF police reports in 2024, and were among the top 10 crimes listed by UPD.
One student’s story
According to Nee’s arrest report, UPD officers found him running across an intersection at around 2:30 a.m. He appeared visibly drunk, so the officers asked to see his ID. Nee handed the officer his fake ID on accident, but admitted to it being false when the officer called him on it.
“Even in that blackout state, I knew you don't give a cop a fake ID,” Nee said. “I knew not to do that, but it was right on the top of my wallet over my actual ID, so I pulled it out.”
The two UPD officers attempted to help Nee get home, but he became antagonistic and tried to run off, according to the report. The officers then restrained him and escorted him to the Alachua County Jail.
Waking up in jail was an awful experience, Nee said, but looking back he recognized the incident was the result of a larger drinking problem. Even though he knew he had a bad relationship with alcohol, he said he didn’t recognize the extent of it. He’s close to a year sober now.
“People tell me when I'm drunk it's like Hyde and Jekyll,” he said.
After he was released from jail, Nee said he had to go through the slow anxiety of bureaucratic court proceedings. However, he thought the process treated him fairly, and, more importantly, he learned from it, he said.
When Nee bought the fake ID, he didn’t realize he committed a felony.
“It was one of those things where it didn't feel like I was breaking a law, really,” Nee said. “In my head, it was like, ‘Oh, everyone has a fake ID,’ and for the most part, that's kind of true.”
The court withheld adjudication of guilt, meaning Nee was found guilty but wasn’t formally convicted. His sentence was reduced to 12 months of probation with regular check-ins and drug testing.
What happens if you’re caught with a fake ID?
In the past eight years, according to data from UPD, there are less than 40 fake ID reports per year out of an undergraduate population of over 40,000 students. Despite the frequency that students are found with fake IDs, there have only been 14 arrests made since 2017. UPD spokesperson Maj. Latrell Simmons said there’s a reason for that.
“One of the things that we do that's unique to here at UF, or even for Santa Fe College students, we will refer them to the SCCR [Student Conduct and Conflict Resolution office],” he said.
Officers encounter students with fake IDs fairly often, and it’s a point of concern, Simmons said.
However, referring the students to the SCCR dean's office allows the university to approach the issue from an educational perspective.
When additional action is needed, UPD works with the court systems, Simmons said.
“Students sometimes are offered some type of deferred prosecution to lessen the charge, as long as they achieve certain levels of compliance, and the SCCR does play a role in that,” he said. “They hold the students accountable to fulfilling those requirements.”
Many situations with fake IDs often come down to officer discretion, he said.
According to UPD data, most fake ID cases are resolved as sworn complaints, which means a summary of the situation is sent to the state attorney’s office to decide if a full investigation will be conducted. Very few students are referred to the SCCR, and it’s even rarer that a student is arrested, with only about 9% of fake ID cases resulting in an arrest.
Fraternity Row, Broward Hall and Beaty Towers are hotspots for reports on campus, but the Midtown bars are also alight with cases.
The Gainesville Police Department often has special details patrolling the Downtown and Midtown areas off campus, said Sgt. Nick Ferrara, a GPD detective.
“I think 75% of the people that I stop have one on them,” he said. “That may be a low figure, because it just seems like most of the time somebody's got a fake.”
There’s been a recent uptick at GPD in arrests for fake IDs, Ferrara said. As technology has improved, getting a fake ID has become even more accessible. Having a fake ID, no matter whose name is on it, is a felony, and getting charged with one can be a “career-ender,” Ferrara said.
“A lot of times I'll kind of do them a favor, give them a break on the fake ID and scold them,” he said.
Even when cases are sent to the state attorney’s office, the courts don’t want to ruin a student’s history, Ferrara said. They often offer the student various alternatives so the case isn’t taken to trial, so long as the student pleads no contest to the charges.
Pleading no contest means the defendant agrees to accept their sentencing, but doesn’t admit responsibility for the charges. But if the student fights the charges, they can face prison time.
“It's totally not worth it, and I have to shake my head every time I stop a kid,” Ferrara said.
Contact Kaysheri Haffner at khaffner@alligator.org. Follow her on X @kaysheri_h.
Kaysheri Haffner is a second-year journalism major and the Criminal Justice reporter for the Alligator. When she's not on the clock, she can be found reading a book or working on a creative writing project.
