False Informing in Indiana: Penalty Tiers and Defenses

False informing in Indiana is the crime of knowingly giving untrue information to law enforcement or another government agency, defined at Indiana Code 35-44.1-2-3. It starts as a Class B misdemeanor punishable by up to 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine, and it climbs through two misdemeanor and two felony tiers depending on what the lie set in motion.¹

What the Statute Actually Prohibits

The core element is knowledge. You must know the information is false at the moment you give it. A confused witness, a mistaken car description, an honest misremembering of a sequence of events — none of that supports a conviction, because the prosecution has to prove you actually knew what you were saying was untrue.¹

The reach of the statute is wider than most people realize. It covers eight categories of false statements: filing a false crime report, giving false information to an officer investigating a crime, calling in a fake fire alarm, requesting an ambulance under false pretenses, filing a false missing-person report, making a false complaint of misconduct against a police officer, and falsely claiming someone is dangerous under Indiana’s extreme risk protection order process.¹ You do not have to be face-to-face with a police officer. A false report routed to a fire department, an ambulance service, or any government reporting channel can qualify.

The Four Penalty Tiers

Indiana splits false informing into four classifications, and the jumps between them are large. Knowing what triggers an upgrade is often the difference between probation and prison time.

Class B Misdemeanor

This is the base offense. The maximum sentence is 180 days in jail and a $1,000 fine.² First-time offenders often receive probation, community service, or both rather than jail. Courts can also order restitution for costs the false information generated, such as wasted officer hours or dispatch expenses.

Class A Misdemeanor

The charge rises to a Class A misdemeanor if the false information substantially hinders a law enforcement process, including by causing officers to be dispatched; if it results in harm to another person; or if it involves falsely claiming someone is dangerous under the extreme risk protection order system.¹ A Class A misdemeanor carries up to one year in jail and fines up to $5,000.³

This tier catches a lot of people off guard. A fabricated robbery report that sends patrol cars to a scene has already triggered a dispatch, which alone can push the charge to Class A. The practical consequence is that very few false crime reports stay at the base misdemeanor level once officers actually respond.

Level 6 Felony

False informing becomes a Level 6 felony when someone falsely reports another person as dangerous and that false report either substantially hinders law enforcement, results in harm, or would cause a reasonable person to feel terrorized or threatened.¹ A Level 6 felony carries a sentence between six months and two and a half years, with an advisory sentence of one year, and fines up to $10,000.⁴

Level 5 Felony

The top tier applies when a false report that someone is dangerous leads to serious bodily injury or death. This is Indiana’s anti-swatting provision at its harshest, carrying a prison sentence of one to six years.¹

False Informing Is Not the Same as False Reporting

The same statute contains a separate offense called false reporting, and people conflate the two because they share a code section. False reporting applies specifically to claiming that someone has placed or intends to place an explosive or destructive device in a building or transportation facility, that a consumer product has been tampered with, or that a weapon of mass destruction has been placed somewhere. False reporting is automatically a Level 6 felony with no enhancement needed.¹ Bomb threats and bioterrorism hoaxes fall under false reporting; lying about a crime, faking a fire alarm, or fabricating a missing-person report fall under false informing.

Related Charges That Often Travel With It

Prosecutors sometimes stack false informing with other offenses that overlap in subject matter but have different elements.

Obstruction of justice under Indiana Code 35-44.1-2-2 targets interference with legal proceedings through conduct like tampering with evidence, threatening witnesses, or destroying documents. It is a Level 6 felony at baseline, rising to Level 5 in domestic violence or child abuse cases.⁵ Someone who files a false crime report and also destroys evidence can face both charges.

Perjury under Indiana Code 35-44.1-2-1 requires a false, material statement made under oath. It is a Level 6 felony.⁶ False informing has no oath requirement and no materiality requirement at the base level, so a casual lie on the street can qualify even though it would never support a perjury charge.

Identity deception under Indiana Code 35-43-5-3.5 covers using another person’s identifying information with intent to harm or defraud, and it is a Level 6 felony.⁷ Giving a fake name during a traffic stop can potentially support both charges, but identity deception requires proof of intent to harm or defraud, which is a higher bar than false informing’s knowledge requirement.

Defenses That Actually Work

The knowledge element is the single biggest vulnerability in the prosecution’s case. If you believed what you said was true, you did not commit false informing. Defense attorneys routinely attack this element by presenting evidence of what the defendant actually believed at the moment of the statement, drawing out ambiguities in memory, perception, or the question itself.

For the Class A misdemeanor enhancement, the prosecution must prove the statement substantially hindered law enforcement. If the false information was trivial, promptly corrected, or never acted upon, the enhancement should not apply. Someone who gives a wrong phone number and corrects it minutes later stands in a very different position from someone whose fabricated story sent detectives on a three-day search.

If police obtained the statement through coercion, threats, or improper interrogation, the defense can move to suppress it. Involuntary statements, including those taken without required constitutional warnings during custodial interrogation, cannot be used as evidence, and if the suppressed statement is the only proof of the offense, the case collapses.⁸

Silence Is Protected. Lying Is Not.

You have a constitutional right to refuse to answer questions. You do not have a right to answer with false information. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected the so-called “exculpatory no” doctrine in Brogan v. United States, ruling that even a bare “no” to a question about your own guilt counts as a criminal false statement if you know it is untrue.⁹ If you don’t want to answer, say nothing.

What a Conviction Follows You With

Even a Class B misdemeanor creates a permanent criminal record that surfaces on background checks. Employers in finance, government, healthcare, and law enforcement routinely screen out applicants with dishonesty-related convictions. Landlords and professional licensing boards see the same record. A false informing conviction tells anyone looking that you lied to authorities, and that colors how your credibility is judged in every setting afterward.

It also follows you into any future courtroom where you testify. Opposing counsel can use the prior conviction to attack your credibility, and jurors tend to find that argument persuasive when the prior offense was itself about lying.

Expungement

Indiana allows expungement of misdemeanor convictions after a waiting period of at least five years from the date of conviction, unless the prosecutor agrees in writing to a shorter period. You also need no pending charges, no other convictions within the previous five years, and all fines, fees, court costs, and restitution paid in full. If you meet those requirements, the court must order the records expunged.¹⁰ A false informing charge enhanced to a Level 6 felony can still be expunged, but under a different statutory provision with longer waiting periods and more conditions. That difference is one more reason the misdemeanor-versus-felony line matters at the charging and plea stages.

Immigration Risk for Noncitizens

A false informing conviction can carry consequences for noncitizens that dwarf the criminal sentence itself. Federal immigration authorities evaluate whether a conviction qualifies as a “crime involving moral turpitude,” which can trigger deportation or bar future admission. Federal courts and the Board of Immigration Appeals have treated false statements made to government officials with intent to deceive as crimes involving moral turpitude, and a Nebraska false-reporting conviction was classified that way specifically because the statute required intent to impede a criminal investigation. Indiana’s statute, which requires knowledge of falsity in statements related to criminal investigations, could receive similar treatment depending on which subsection is charged. Any noncitizen facing this charge should consult an immigration attorney before entering a plea.

1
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-44.1-2-3 – False Reporting; False Informing; Swatting
2
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-50-3-3 – Class B Misdemeanor
3
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-50-3-2 – Class A Misdemeanor
4
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-50-2-7 – Level 6 Felony
5
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-44.1-2-2 – Obstruction of Justice
6
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-44.1-2-1 – Perjury
7
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-43-5-3.5 – Identity Deception
8
Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. Fifth Amendment
9
Cornell Law School Legal Information Institute. Brogan v. United States, 522 U.S. 398 (1998)
10
Indiana General Assembly. Indiana Code 35-38-9-2 – Expunging Misdemeanor Convictions