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Understanding Virginia Police Procedures: Traffic Cases: Part 1

Overwhelmingly, traffic stops represent the largest number of police-citizen contacts. Most traffic stops – by far – are innocuous and result in nothing more than a traffic ticket that you can pay by mail, credit card or debit card. Your insurance may increase – depending on the nature of the violation. But even if you don’t like the fact that you were stopped, or how the officer treated you during the stop, or the officer’s decision to issue a citation, most of the time you are not going to be arrested. You might complain to your spouse, your co-workers and friends about it – if you mention it at all – but it will be forgotten in time, just as other bad things that happen from time to time.

But even if you do understand why you were stopped – and perhaps, even, expected it once you saw the police lights come on – the officer was thinking three or four steps ahead. The officer certainly observed something in your driving – or a defect in the car’s equipment, license or registration – in deciding to make the stop, but before the officer activated those blue lights on his car, he already had radioed the dispatcher a description of the car and the license plate. In some jurisdictions, the officer can do this with an in-car computer within hands reach.

Therefore, many times before the officer makes the decision to pull you over (and certainly, before exiting the patrol car) he or she knew basic facts about the car and the registered owner. The officer knew whether the car was properly registered, to whom it was registered, whether the registration was current, and whether there were any warrants or “look-outs” associated with either the owner or the car. This is an important part of the training they receive both at the police academy, and with their on-street mentors. Until this has become an automatic response for him or her, they will not be permitted on the streets alone.

This procedure is an “officer safety” consideration, not just a law-enforcement issue. FBI statistics regularly demonstrate that most officers killed or injured in the line of duty were involved in situations beginning as traffic stops. The number of these unfortunate occurrences has not markedly increased over the years, and this bears out the validity and safety aspects of the practice. And it will, and should continue. As you will see later in this series, “officer safety” is the primary consideration in virtually every encounter with the public, and will legally justify minimal Fourth Amendment intrusions on a person’s freedom of movement, and his privacy. Understanding the officer’s concerns at the initial stage of the stop is important, if for no other reason than to curb the desire to be confrontational with the officer if you feel you are being unjustly detained.

But the procedure has additional benefits. The answers to many of the questions the officer will ask the driver he already knows before opening the door to the police car. That permits him or her time to consider other aspects of the stop, including other potential violations of law that may be present.

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