When I went through basic cop school is was taught. I was an arson investigator not a uniformed street cop but I have seen many officers do that. I am not so sure it is taught that way any more. Texas DPS used to teach the “Seven Step Violator Contact” (actually you can Google that) but that, too, might be outdated now.
But that’s not what OP is talking about. OP is saying police should carry bulletproof shields and make everyone in the vehicle get out and “assume the position.”
If it is a felony stop, that is if there is a warrant for the individual, or if the officer has reasonable suspicion or probable cause to believe the driver has committed a crime, the officer will be in a much higher state of readiness than if it were just a simple traffic offense. Felony stop procedures are often incorporated in the departments policies and procedures manual.
Most officers also know that a suspects eyes, mouth, feet, etc. cannot hurt them. It is the hands that can hurt them. Therefore the hands of the individual is what the officers want to see… sooooo… if you get stopped, make sure the officer can see your hands. Keeping them on the steering wheel is a good idea. Do not make overt gestures like reaching under the seat or in the glove box. How stupid is that??? Just sit there and wait until the officers asks you to produce your license. If you are carrying a weapon it would be a good idea to let the officer know.
It is not a “law” that you remain in the car (at least not in Texas) but is sure is a good idea. If an individual gets out of the car, the officer is immediately going to think 1) they are being confrontational or 2) there is something in the car they do not want the officer to see…or smell.
I think what you have written has become a new unwritten law.
No, he didn’t say they should, he asked why they don’t. I feel that was answered, multiple times by several posters. I small, but important difference, I/we answered the question, I wasn’t arguing against a statement.
TL;DR, having the driver in the car gives the officer more control over the situation.
Furthermore, you’ll note that the part of my post your quoted was a reply to you. Telling me it completely apply to the OP isn’t really fair.
This is incorrect. Police work is dangerous, but there has been no trend toward increasing danger in this century, and annual police deaths are about half what they were in the 1920s and 1930s.
See data:
US Law Enforcement Deaths 1791-2015
US Law Enforcement Deaths, Assaults and Injuries 2004-2013
US Law Enforcement Deaths and Injuries 2014
Having said so, I constantly worry about our vulnerability to maniacs, and I worry most about the vulnerability of police because they are conspicuous, and because their duties include first response to crime in progress.
Their current procedures are the way they are because of accidents/shootings which have happened in the past.
-Officers have been shot.
-I’m sure some drunk stumbled out of his car door into traffic and got run over.
-Cars have run into the stopped police car.
-Etc.
The idea is to conduct the stops in a manner which will reduce accidents/officers being hurt to the bare minimum.
I have been stopped a few times myself, and I was always guilty of something up to and including DUI (which I was never charged with).
Although your SOP has been working IMO it would be much better, especially if you have a gun in the car, to put your license in one hand, your registration and insurance card in the other hand, and put both hands out the window.
Also, I wonder under if there is a legal requirement to volunteer to an investigating officer, without being asked, that you are armed.
Finally, I was on the occasion of my first traffic stop told to turn off my hazard lights, and although he did not say so, I got the impression the officer would rather I had not turned them on in the first place.
If the police car is parked behind you, and your hazard lights are on, only the flashing light on the left side of your car may be visible. It may appear to an approaching car that you are signalling to pull back out into the road.
My question was whether I should have turned them on at all. In retrospect it would seem unnecessary, since there was blue light blazing away right behind me.
Nelson Pike
This varies from state to state. I live in Nebraska, and it is a “Must Notify” state. I am obligated, by the terms of my CHP, to notify an officer at any contact with Law Enforcement.
ETA: In Nebraska the CHP database is cross indexed with the DL database. If I should happen to fail to notify an officer, and then produce my driver’s license, he or she will find in the DL check for wants and warrants that I have a CHP and did not notify them of this. This violation could result in the loss of my CHP.
I’m in Missouri and it’s not a must notify state, though if asked you should answer truthfully of course. Our DL information is no longer tied with the CHP information though it used to be.
I live in a rural area and at least the Sheriff’s officers assume the local folks they stop are armed.
Which is in and of itself a violation of the drivers civil rights and against the law, not to mention unconstitutional. Not the shield bit, that’s just stupid. But you cannot make someone “assume the position” without probable cause as the “position” exists solely as a prelude to a search. If all I’ve done is coast through a stop sign, the officer has ZERO cause to ask me to do shit except show my license, insurance card and registration. Few cops want to escalate a simple interaction with the public into a confrontation every fucking time.
IIRC that’s called a “felony stop” and is conducted a lot different than a typical traffic stop.
A traffic stop isn’t necessarily considered a custodial detention (so you don’t have to be Mirandized and anything you say during the stop can be used against you in court later), but it considered a “type of detention.” While detained by police you have a general requirement to follow lawful orders. So while some police officers may not care if you get out of your car, I suspect the vast majority will tell you to get back in the car. If they do tell you to do so, you need to comply with the lawful order.
Fresh Air had a retired NYPD patrolman who had written a book about his life in for an interview a few months ago. He was more of the “old school” community-policing sort of cop, not the new age “warriors whose only job is to make sure they go home at night, and damn who dies in the process” (that’s an exaggeration of the doctrine of “making it home at night”, which is based in reasonable officer safety, but in the minds of many police has taken on a dangerous element.)
Even he noted that something every cop learns, or should learn, relatively early in their career is there are no “ground ball arrests” or “easy ones.” He related a story where he’d been on the force for a couple years, and was feeling somewhat confident in his abilities because he’d been through some tough situations. Anyway, he gets called on to effect an arrest warrant in a nice Manhattan condo building on a stockbroker. He basically goes in thinking he’s going to slip handcuffs on some yuppie or pencil-necked geek kinda guy and goes into the situation with essentially no concern at all. At the time, he said he frequently would just leave his bullet proof vest off, he sort of indicated it was a time when you were kinda supposed to wear your vest if you were out on patrol, but a lot of guys didn’t because it was bulky and there was a sense that being shot is so rare it wasn’t worth it.
Anyway, he knocks on the door and the “yuppie stockbroker” opens it, and is standing there wearing body armor and has a semiautomatic rifle. It’s only through sheer luck, and the fact he was able to immediately wrestle the gun partially out of the guy’s hands and then wrestle him down that he avoided being killed. He said that was the point in his career when he said he learned there’s no such thing as a “groundball” in policing, and he also said he rarely went to work without his vest again.
Google was uninformative:
What is CHP?
Cutaneous Hepatic Porphyria. It’s a medical condition that darkens your skin, and it may be extremely dangerous unless you explain it to the cop.
Ok, maybe it’s a Concealed Handgun Permit.
CHP= Concealed Handgun Permit
in Texas it is CHL which is Concealed Handgun License
Probably other acronyms in other places with the same meaning
Look here