What to do if you are pulled over by the police

[vienna]

Originally Posted by Platapus

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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.

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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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