Quick answer: Fleeing or eluding police in Maryland (Transp. § 21-904) means the State must prove you willfully failed to stop after a proper signal from either a uniformed officer displaying a badge or an officer in a clearly marked police vehicle. It is a must-appear misdemeanor, and a conviction adds 12 points to your record — by itself enough to revoke your license. I’m David Waranch, and I’ve handled thousands of Maryland traffic cases, including fleeing and eluding charges.
Two Ways You Can Be Charged Under § 21-904
Most write-ups on fleeing and eluding — including the old version of this page — say the officer “has to be in uniform.” That is only half the statute, and repeating it can cost you a defense that doesn’t actually exist. Md. Code, Transp. § 21-904 creates the offense two separate ways:
- Subsection (b) — the uniformed-officer route. An officer in uniform, prominently displaying a badge or other insignia of office, gives a visual or audible signal to stop, and the driver tries to elude by willfully failing to stop, fleeing on foot, or “any other means.”
- Subsection (c) — the marked-vehicle route. An officer, whether or not in uniform, is in a vehicle appropriately marked as an official police vehicle and gives a signal to stop. Here the uniform is irrelevant — the marked cruiser is what triggers the duty to pull over.
So an unmarked-car stop by a plainclothes detective may fall outside the statute, but the moment a marked cruiser lights you up, arguing “I couldn’t tell he was a cop” gets you nowhere. A “visual or audible signal” under § 21-904(a) is defined broadly — it includes a signal by hand, voice, emergency light, or siren. The signal does not have to be all four; one is enough.
“Willfully” Is the Word the Whole Case Turns On
The State has to prove you willfully failed to stop. That single word is where most of the defense lives. Willful means a knowing, intentional refusal to obey a signal you actually perceived — not a slow reaction, not confusion, and not a mistake. Two situations come up constantly:
- You never saw or heard the signal. Heavy traffic, loud music, rain, an officer several cars back — if you did not perceive the signal, you could not have willfully ignored it.
- You kept going to a safe place to stop. Continuing a short distance to a lit parking lot or off a blind curve, then pulling over, is the opposite of eluding. Prosecutors and judges recognize that pulling over on a dark shoulder can be dangerous.
The distance you traveled, your speed, whether you signaled or slowed, and how quickly you stopped once it was safe are all evidence of your intent. A charge often gets filed the moment an officer feels a stop took too long — the willfulness question is what separates that frustration from an actual crime.
“If a police officer gives a visual or audible signal to stop … a driver of a vehicle may not attempt to elude the police officer by … willfully failing to stop the driver’s vehicle.” — Transp. § 21-904(b)–(c)
The Four Penalty Tiers
Fleeing and eluding is not a single flat penalty. Section 21-904(f) sets four tiers, and the jump from the base offense to the injury and death tiers is enormous — from one year and a $1,000 cap to as much as ten years and $5,000:
| Tier | Maximum penalty |
|---|---|
| First offense (misdemeanor) | 1 year and/or $1,000 |
| Second or subsequent offense | 2 years and/or $1,000 |
| Results in bodily injury (d)(1), or eluding for a crime of violence later convicted (e) | 3 years and/or $5,000 |
| Results in death (d)(2) | 10 years and/or $5,000 |
Every tier is “imprisonment not exceeding X or a fine not exceeding $Y or both,” so a judge can impose jail, a fine, or both. And unlike an ordinary payable ticket, there is no prepay box to check — fleeing and eluding is a must-appear charge. You (or your attorney) have to go to court; ignoring it is not an option and leads to a warrant.
The real surprise isn’t the jail time — it’s the points. Even if you avoid a day in jail, a single fleeing-and-eluding conviction carries 12 points. Twelve points is the exact number that triggers revocation of your license under § 16-404(a). One conviction can take your license on its own, completely separate from whatever the criminal court does with the fine or sentence. People negotiate hard over jail and never see the license loss coming.
Why 12 Points Can Revoke Your License by Itself
Maryland’s point system escalates: 3 points brings a warning letter, 5 points a required driver improvement program, 8 points a suspension, and 12 points a revocation under Transp. § 16-404(a). Most offenses put one to a few points on your record, so it usually takes several tickets to reach the revocation line. Fleeing and eluding gets you there in a single conviction.
Revocation is worse than suspension: your driving privilege is cancelled, not just paused, and getting it back means a formal MVA reinstatement process rather than simply waiting out a period. This is why the point consequence, not the fine, is usually the most important part of the case. If you want the full ladder, see my breakdown of Maryland’s point system in a nutshell and what it takes to have a revoked Maryland license reinstated. Keeping the conviction — and its 12 points — off your record is the whole game.
Common Defenses and How Charges Get Reduced
Because willfulness is the core element, most defenses attack whether you knowingly refused a signal you actually perceived. Depending on the facts, that can mean showing you never saw or heard the officer, that the officer was in an unmarked car and not in uniform (so neither route applies), that the signal was ambiguous, or that you pulled over as soon as it was reasonably safe. Fleeing and eluding is also frequently charged alongside reckless driving or negligent driving, and part of the work is keeping the more serious charge from sticking.
Even where the facts are difficult, a plea to a lesser offense that avoids the 12-point hit — protecting the license — is often a better outcome than fighting to a conviction. I represent drivers on these charges throughout the state, including Montgomery County and Prince George’s County. For an overview of the charge and the firm’s service on it, see my Maryland fleeing and eluding lawyer page.
Frequently Asked Questions
A conviction under Transp. section 21-904 carries 12 points. That is the exact threshold that triggers revocation of your license under section 16-404(a), so a single conviction can revoke your driving privilege on its own, separate from any fine or jail sentence.
No. Section 21-904 has two routes. Under subsection (b) the officer must be in uniform and display a badge, but under subsection (c) an officer whether or not in uniform can charge you as long as they are in a vehicle appropriately marked as an official police vehicle. A marked cruiser is enough.
That is often a strong defense. The State must prove you willfully failed to stop, which means a knowing, intentional refusal of a signal you actually perceived. If you did not see or hear the signal, or continued a short distance to pull over somewhere safe, you did not willfully elude police.
Law Offices of David R. Waranch — 301-563-9575 · toll-free 1-877-566-2408. Hablamos Español.
Last updated: August 2026. Statutory references: Md. Code, Transp. § 21-904 (fleeing or eluding), § 16-404 (point-system actions and revocation). This page is general information about Maryland law, not legal advice, and reading it does not create an attorney-client relationship.