Stopped by a Traffic Cop! Important Do’s and Don’ts
Posted: Tuesday, October 04, 2011
by Christofer French
Rain Dancer Associates, LLC
The red and the blue. Flash, flash, flash. The night gets illuminated with alarming lights. The lights make your equipoise not very “equi” and not very “poised”. If you are normal you are edgy, angry and irritable. Your blood pressure rises, your pulse rate, your adrenalin squirts up and all kinds of subtle fear and stress responses pop and crackle through your being. You sweat or grow cold and clammy. You breathe fast, or hold your breath. Your want to chatter or shut completely up. Do not regard all of these natural responses. Get a hold of yourself quickly.
Assuming you have done nothing other than speeding, and have no illegal substances in your car, and have no illegal substances in your blood, and do not have passengers who for a number of reasons could get you into more legal trouble, this article is a straightforward description of the initial encounter for a traffic stop. They involve the civility and consciousness of understanding the typical traffic situation. If you have anything from a DUI to a standing warrant against you, these pieces of advice still can help you mitigate a much more serious situation.
The first DO.
· Breathe deeply. 5 nice deep breaths will help you. Under the topic of breathing, don’t unconsciously hold your breath, or breathe shallow. Hypoventilation (under breathing) can cause a dizzy feeling and inhibit intelligent responses and even make you appear to be under the influence. So, do your best to get calm.
· As you are breathing deeply, slow down, put your brakes on and use your turn signal. The first thing a police officer wants to see when they turn on their lights, and/or their siren is that you have seen them, noted that you are the one being pursued, and are proceeding to stop. Expressed as a “Do” – Proceed to stop.
· As a note, if the traffic is heavy, it is snowing or raining heavily, you obviously need to take extra care. The officer will logically understand your care, but do not dally in your attempts to slow down and stop on the side of the road.
Don’t Meander, Change Lanes Casually or Speed Up
· Expressed as a “Don’t”, it means: Don’t ignore the officer. Don’t speed up. Don’t meander, make turns and change lanes casually or proceed without doing anything but going forward - ALL of these things will be viewed HIGHLY negatively by the officer. These DON’Ts will build up a store of trouble for you directly.
· DO stop on the side of the road. Put your hands in a “10 and 2” position on the steering wheel.
· The DON’Ts can be many, depending on how you thrash and move about. Obviously, this is the most tense a stop can get before the parties address each other. The more you move at this point, the more the officer will be subjected to the stress of this moment. If there is a second officer, they may move over to the right side of your car, or the rear, the presence of another officer should not make you move suddenly or reach under your seat, or in a coat, or purse. It is best at this moment to be completely motionless, or any bodily movement should be slow and signaled.
· Do remain in your car. Do not open your car door and step out without any contact. This could cause a gun to be drawn upon you. The “old friendly” approach of getting out of your car to show that you are open, talkative and innocent is completely the WRONG thing to do – an anachronistic image of a folksy past.
· Remain seated until the officer approaches you and asks to see your License, Registration and Proof of Insurance. Always have these on you, of course. If you do not have these on you, it is not a reason to freeze up, unless the vehicle is stolen and you have a “record” regarding stolen vehicles and the like. Time to produce the proof of insurance is usually allowed without penalty. Do not throw a fit if you are lacking one of these, that increases the nervousness and the officer’s doubt about you.
· At this time, do not address the officer about the speed you were travelling, or inquire of the officer about why you were stopped. Beginning “friendly” nervous talk is a negative and will be interpreted thusly by the officer. If you are initiating conversation it will make you sound nervous anyway, and the officer will interpret your talk as “guilty” sounding or cause them to remark on your demeanor.
· Only begin speaking when the Officer asks you a question. Then begin your conversation with “Yes, Officer…”
· You need not “confess” a speed, but you can certainly do your best to sound reasonable, courteous, compliant and polite.
Don’t Let Drunken Friends Establish Your Reality
· When you listen to bar room talk about how easily you can talk to a cop, or how fun they are, or how mean and abusive they are should not be allowed to color your demeanor. Try to remember that assumptions like this “bar room talk” can lead to mistakes and misapprehensions. Don’t forget that drunken friends also brag, lie and color stories for the potential humor or drama that they provide. Following formal politeness will not harm.
The 25 year Colorado Cop told me this:
“REMEMBER: Everything you are doing on the positive side is a continuing positive reason to reduce the charge against you. Everything you are doing on the negative side is a continuing reason to become more adamant, record a bad report or increase the marks against you.”
So, this is kind of an ongoing record of possible negotiation along the entire encounter?
“From the time the siren gets turned on, until the ticket is determined the perpetrator is either winning points, establishing a neutral record, which is actually good, or building a list of bad marks which go on the ticket and become the reason they don’t see any mercy.”
· Regarding trying to negotiate your speed down generally does not work. This is viewed as a challenge of the instrumentation or the officer’s judgment.
· Charges can be added very easily in these situations – conditions of the car, conduct of the driver, or passengers, investigations caused by observed conditions.
The Cop continues: “If people only knew how much trouble they bring on themselves simply through their overly aggressive talk, discourteous conduct and negative demeanor, they would cry all the way to the bank. Tell your readers the closest thing to getting a magical merciful assessment is simply to be polite and respectful. That goes a long long way these days!”
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Top-level comments on this article: (3 total)Christofer, I definitely enjoy your humor. As always, this is a fitting topic for me as I drive a night time route along with a stat lab/mri route. It seemed at first I made more than my fair share of mistakes. It also seems that I am stopped at least once per cop who has not met me yet--then, I get a kind of "pass". You are SO, SO right about "Do NOT move to get out of your car." Doing so merits instant negative escalation.
...On the road agin:-)Thanks for the personal story. This is a universal deal fraught with the subjective.
I like to speed and go through traffic lights only when it's a Monsoon deluge because I enjoy the chance sighting of a police officer, just standing out in the pouring rain.That makes me smile.
Excellent advice.
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