What to do if you are pulled over by the police
 

The Loudon County Virginia sheriffs office has published two you tube videos explaining what to do if you are pulled over. The second video is for those drivers who are legally carrying a concealed weapon.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5bO0fjkgLOE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-UXdGREaH34

I think this is an awesome idea. However, in talking to several officers over the years about this very topic, I would like to pass on what they told me.

Open your windows if possible
Turn on the overhead light if at night
Turn the engine off and put the keys on the dash where the officer can see them
Take your wallet out and place it on the dash
Place both hands on the steering wheel and keep them there.

Concerning informing the officer that you are carrying concealed; I have heard different opinions from different officers. If you don't have a concealed permit and are carrying open, I would follow the instructions in the video.

There are relatively few states that require you to inform the officer that you are carrying. Most states that have carry permits require you to tell the officer when they ask you. This is how it should be done.

The reason is that the officer is going to ask you a series of questions and govern his or her actions accordingly. This is one reason why you answer the officer's questions and only the officer's questions. Any time you introduce information into the conversation you are disrupting the officer's routine.

In Virginia and I assume in all states where there is a carry permit, the police will know if the registered owner of the car has a permit. At the appropriate time the officer will ask you if you are carrying and where the weapon is. Having a weapon on your right side and your wallet on the right side may not bode well.

This is why the officers I talked to suggested that you pull your wallet and place it on the dash.

But in any case, I applaud the sheriff's office for producing these videos.

Both the citizen and the officer want to leave the stop alive.

A little common sense goes a long way.

Here in Sweden we have a completely different climate, regarding how it should be acted in confrontations, ok I think this is for the whole, Scandinavia.This is a different way of thinking about the gun laws and emerging situations, but of course there are some areas that have higher crime.

Thanks for taking the time to post this thread and the links to the common sense instructions.

Hopefully this will alleviate any misunderstandings.

Use good judgement, I've been a concealed carry in Va and NC for years and my few run ins have gone OK. Have more issues when I open carry in a shoulder holster at times metal detecting in certain areas, even one rookie cop walking right up on me gun drawn and pointed at me....

Well here in Germany things have changed a bit.

Some time ago, when you got stopped by the police, it was even expected for you to leave the car instantly, to show some cooperation. You did not need to raise your arms or do anything, just stand beside it and wait. At least in a normal sample control.
Leaving the car was expected to then show the police whether all the security gear was onboard, and that was usually stored in the rear bunk. So you had to get out to open it and show first aid kit, triangular safety reflector and, since a few years, an orange warning vest.

Nowadays it is expected you to remain in the car, open the window and only do what you are told. I guess the recent events have taken its toll. Still most of the people here have no guns, but a bit of pepper spray may also help in difficult situations, or an ordinary club.

You sure don't want to do that in the US. :nope:

Nowadays it is expected you to remain in the car, open the window and only do what you are told. I guess the recent events have taken its toll. Still most of the people here have no guns, but a bit of pepper spray may also help in difficult situations, or an ordinary club.[/QUOTE]

I guess it boils down to two concepts that the officers told me

1. The officer is in control of the stop
2. Follow the officer's instructions as they are given to you.

Moving around a lot in the car after stopping and before the officer has started to approach the car can be troublesome. I haven't been stopped in years, so I don't know if the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) still does so, but when I used to get stopped, with great regularity, by the LAPD, if I made moves to get my wallet out of pocket or to secure my registration before the officer came up to the driver's window, I stood a very good chance of looking down the wrong end of a gun barrel. The LAPD has undergone some very big changes in how the officers conduct themselves since dumping the previous whacked out chiefs and as a result of a Federal Court Consent Decree, so a lot of the old hyper-paranoia-based methods have been considerably toned down, bu I still would wait for the officer to ask for my documents and then I would tell him where the documents were and that I was now going to retrieve them; I certainly would make every effort to try to keep my movements as visible as possible. I guess the way one responds or acts at a stop sometimes will depend on the customs of the jurisdiction of the stop. There is a street here in LA that passes through four different police department jurisdictions and each is rather different in its methods than the others; I know because I have been stopped by each, once by three of the four in the same day...

Here in Los Angeles, if you are stopped by the LAPD in a two-man cruiser, one officer will approach your car from the driver's side, while the other will approach form the passenger side at a bit of a distance, but he will have his hand on his holstered sidearm. This is just LAPD SOP...



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Following instructions is ok, but leaving the car in full sight of the police seemed to be a much better concept back then.

Sitting in the car with the view blocked from the police by the seat and so, and fumbling in the tight jeans after the wallet, or placing something on the dashboard will get you some critical comment from german police officers for sure.

Not in the US, obviously, and good to know..

As recently shown in Austin Texas....
 

How not to get your ass kicked by the police...

>>WARNING<<
Foul language.
It's Chris Rock after all.
https://youtu.be/uj0mtxXEGE8

Where have our freedoms gone (in the US) ??

Back in 'the day' (60's) in the US we were taught to get out of the vehicle and stand by the closed door so the cops couldn't search the car....... This became a habit I developed and modified to include grabbing the registration and proof of insurance papers first before I got out.

I had nothing to hide; with me it was a matter of principle because I thought that they should first get a search warrant to look.

Fast forward to the 90's ; ) No gun permits were required then where I lived, and working on the road a lot I carried one for protection in case I ever broke down.

One night in a small town I was pulled over, I did, and noticed a 2nd squad car pull up. As I was reaching over to get the papers I heard a lot of shouting, grabbed the papers, waved them over my head as I was turning, and got out - only to see & hear 4 guns pointed at me by the four cops, all crouching behind their cars and shouting at the same time. It was impossible to understand what they were shouting.

I'm a tall white guy who must have looked threatening to them and I am very lucky they didn't shoot - ha! Just to prove I had nothing to hide I told them to look behind the seats, under them, and anywhere else they wanted to look - which they did.

After that night my 'procedure' changed to: 'remain in my seat and wait for them to walk up' to the window. I never had anything to hide, but it just wasn't worth getting shot over 'principle' by trigger happy rookies.

I would think just the motions of getting out my wallet would be interpreted as reaching for my waste. I'll wait for the cop to approach the window and ask first.

Here we stay in the car, turn the engine off and take the licence/registration out while the cops walks to the car.
We only go out if asked.

Great video, common sense does go a long way. My parents told me most of this when they taught me how to drive in the 70's. Unfortunetlay the problem is not what might happen if you dont do these things. The problem is what happenes when you do do all these things, put your hands in the air, sit down or just happen to be delivering news papers and you still get shot by trigger happy police.

Instead of pissing away tax payer money making videos. Maybe they could stop protecting and start weeding out the trigger happy dirt bags that carry badge.

Quickly hide the guns and drugs (or use them).:up: