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Directions: For this Project, write a script outlining a scenario for a high-risk traffic stop

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For this Project, write a script outlining a scenario for a high-risk traffic stop.

Using the information from the presentation, create a scenario for a high-risk

traffic stop which leads to a pursuit.

2. Develop a detailed script for a high-risk traffic stop between a law enforcement
officer and a violator. Be sure to discuss specific techniques taken by the law
enforcement officer.

3. Scripts should be three to four minutes long.

Attached is the video transcript for the presentation.

The high risk starts on page 6 3.risk.

Video Transcript Vehicle Traffic Stops The content within this transcript has been created utilizing a third-party software company which complies with all federal accessibility laws and international standards for web accessibility, providing a measured accuracy rate of 99.6 percent. However, if errors are found, please report them to qualitycontrol@cevmultimedia.com. 1. Basic Traffic Stop Procedures Traffic stops are an important part of an officer's daily responsibilities. It is necessary for an officer to be able to perform a traffic stop professionally, effectively, and safely. The goal of any traffic stop is to make the roadway safer by enforcing traffic laws to reduce traffic-related injuries and deaths. A police officer has the legal authority to stop a vehicle when he or she has reasonable suspicion that a traffic violation or a crime has happened, is happening, or is about to happen. Common violations include speeding, running a red light, failing to stop at a stop sign, not signaling, not wearing a seatbelt, reckless driving, and impaired driving. Any of these can lead to an officer initiating a traffic stop. All right, what we're going to discuss is a mock traffic stop, taking the proper procedures and steps to conduct a traffic stop. First, you're going to observe the violation on the vehicle itself. Once you observe the violation and you decide you're going to affect a traffic stop, you will pick up your radio. You will contact dispatch and advise them of a traffic stop. The information you need to give them is the location of the traffic stop, the license plate of the vehicle, and the color of the vehicle and make and model if you can determine that. Once you determine that and relay that information to your dispatcher, you will activate your overhead emergency lights to conduct a traffic stop. They will pull over, either on the improved shoulder of the roadway if there's one available or into a parking lot or driveway which is available. When you make your stop and you come to a stop on the side of the road, you're going to position your vehicle to protect you as well as use your lights to your advantage. If it's at nighttime, you have a spot light and your takedown lights. You're going to activate those, make sure they're positioned in a sense where you can see what's going on inside the car. Once that's done, step out of your car. Make your approach. Daytime your hands are going to be free, nighttime you'll probably have a flashlight in your hand. So you make it to this point, you want to-- before you come here you want to make sure that everything's safe. So his hands are on the steering wheel, that's a good indication that he's probably going to comply with your demands. So I'm Officer Mitch Allen with the police department. Sir, can I see your driver's license and proof of financial responsibility? While he's digging for that, feel free to ask other questions, where he's going to, where he's coming from, how long he's going to be there. A simple thing, is everything Vehicle Traffic Stops 1 Video Transcript Vehicle Traffic Stops with your driver's license current? He hands you your stuff. At that point in time, you're kind of on a restricted time limit to handle your business and decide what you're going to do, issue a citation, issue a warning, arrest the subject, let him go. So he gives you this information. Hoy, is that correct? Mr. Hoy, the reason you're being stopped today is I checked your speed back here in the speed zone of 55 and you were doing 62. Is there are a reason for your speed today? No? OK, everything correct on your driver's license here? This is your current address? OK. What I'm going to do is I'm going to go back there and I'm going to check everything out. And when I get done, I'll be back up here, OK? Sit tight for me. So now you're going to go back to your car. Some agencies have the Mobile Data Terminals, which is an MDT computer in your car where you can check their driver's license, check their license plate in your car. Some don't have that information or that equipment, so you have to talk to your dispatcher on the radio again. Some agencies require you to do both, you check it in your car but you also contact dispatch on the radio and advise them what you've got. They come back clear and current is a police terminology where their driver's license is current, there's no suspensions, it's valid, and they have no warrants. That's what clear and current stands for. So dispatch tells you they're clear and current. You've now decided, hey, I'm just going to give him a verbal warning. You walk back up, Mr. Hoy, everything checked out OK today. What I'm going to do is I'm going to issue a verbal warning for your speed. If you don't mind, slow down a little bit today, OK? Have a safe day. And go back to your car, deactivate everything, and the traffic stop's over. It is important for all officers to follow the seven step method during a traffic stop. After approaching the violator, the officer should, one, greet the driver and provide identification. Two, state the violation that was committed. Three, ask for the driver's license and proof of insurance. Four, let the driver know what action will be taken before it is taken. Possible actions include issuing a verbal warning, written warning, or citation. Five, take the action. Six, explain what the violator must do. And seven, return back to the vehicle. I'm going to approach the driver. I'm going to use my seven step approach to talk to the driver. I'm going to identify myself and then greet them, tell them why I stopped them, ask them for their registration, their driver's license. You know, take whatever Vehicle Traffic Stops 2 Video Transcript Vehicle Traffic Stops action I'm going to take, whether it's giving them a verbal warning, a written warning, or maybe a citation. If I choose to give them a citation, again it's all the officer's choice what I intend on doing. I'll explain to them how to take care of the citation, you know, when you go to court, et cetera. And explain to them, by signing the ticket, you're not pleading guilty to anything. You're just promising to go to court and explain your side, that's all you're doing. And then, you know, I leave. Although the seven step method should always be followed, there are other techniques which an officer can employ in order to stay safe. For example, an officer may ask the driver to remain in the vehicle. Or some officers prefer to ask the driver to step out of the car. An officer may also choose to approach the passenger side of the vehicle instead of the driver side. At the location of your stop, there could be scenarios where you would approach on the passenger side. That could be at nighttime so you don't get run over on the side of the road because of traffic. It could be because you saw more than one person in the vehicle and it's a surprise factor. Come up on the passenger side, most of the time people are looking in their side view mirror, where's the police officer at? Come up on the other side, you can not only-- not only can you see what the driver is doing, but you can see what the passenger's doing with your flashlight at night. I, for one, when you use your flashlight at night, cover it up as much as you can once-- as you're getting to the car so you're not giving away your location. With that being said, you also have to worry about the dangers on the passenger side, being the roadside ditch. Muddy weather you might slip and fall in the ditch. It might be a steep ditch, it's full of water, it's a disadvantage to you. Advantage to driver side, if it is nighttime they know you're coming, let it be known. Just take a little wider approach so they can't see you in their mirror. So if you would-you know, normally you see an officer, he comes up alongside the car. If you take two or three steps out away from the car and come in more at a direct angle from the side, he's not able to follow your every move in that mirror. So there's different angles of approach if you want to. Dark tinted windows, sir, can you roll down your window just to make sure that there's not anybody else in the vehicle that's going to harm me? Most of time, they'll comply. Regardless of the events that take place during a traffic stop, an officer should always remain professional. Vehicle Traffic Stops 3 Video Transcript Vehicle Traffic Stops And you see oncoming traffic, try to identify the race and the sex of the driver of that car. From a distance of 50 feet, you can't do it. And so, you know, when I make a stop on somebody I don't know who they are, what color they are, what sex they are, anything else until I pretty much get up on the vehicle. They used to teach us when I was in academy 30 years ago, oh, your mind should have already been made up on your actions you're going to take before you ever talk to the driver. That's kind of changed. My mind's not made up until I've talked to the driver and figured out what's going on. You know, am I going to talk to an elderly person differently than I would a 17-yearold? Probably so. I'm going to try to explain a lot more to the elderly person because sometimes they don't understand what they did. As far as letting my guard down, I'm not really going to let it down. You know, it's just maintaining an air of professionalism, I think, with all traffic stops. You know, whether they are 17 or 70, you should still be professional to the worst people. 2. Ticketing Most traffic tickets or citations are infraction level offenses. Infractions may be resolved by paying a fine or going to court. The majority of traffic tickets are issued for offenses such as speeding, failure to use turn signals, failure to yield, turning into the wrong lane, driving a car with burned out headlights, parking in a handicapped spot without the required sticker, and overdue parking meters. There are two categories of violations, moving violations and non-moving violations. A moving violation occurs when a traffic laws violated by a vehicle in motion. Examples of this are running a stop sign or red light or failure to use a seatbelt. A nonmoving violation is any type of traffic events which involves a stationary vehicle. These violations typically deal with illegal parking or faulty equipment, such as parking in front of a fire hydrant, having an invalid driver's license, or having a broken tail light. Certain traffic violations are more serious and can be classified as a misdemeanor or even a felony This is especially true if the offense involves injuring a person or destroying property. Examples of these more serious violations are driving under the influence or leaving the scene of an incident. People accused of these types of violations are allowed constitutional protection, including the right to a court appointed attorney and a jury trial. It is helpful to understand the information included on a traffic ticket when very excited for a violation. Traffic tickets vary by jurisdiction, but generally contain the same basic information. The following is an overview of the types of information likely found on a traffic ticket. Vehicle Traffic Stops 4 Video Transcript Vehicle Traffic Stops Vehicle information. The law enforcement officer will write down the make and model, color, license plate number, and registration number of the vehicle. When an officer calls into dispatch, this is the information which will need to be provided in order to check for outstanding warrants. Another element located on a traffic ticket is the date, time, and exact location of the incident. Also, a ticket will typically provide a description of the offense, such as failure to stop at a red light in addition to the vehicle code which was violated. The last element, which is found on most traffic tickets, is the name and badge number of the officer who issued the citation. If I'm going to write a citation, I'm filling out the ticket, I'm also running the driver's license to make sure that you don't have any warrants. Nowadays, they can actually check and make sure your insurance is valid to the computer. So a lot of technologies increase now. They have the ticket writers, the e-ticket ticket writers, where you no longer get a trifold ticket or whatever. It's just like a receipt from the grocery store, which is printed up right then and there. They'll just swipe your driver's license. If a driver is charged with a violation, the officer will present a ticket listing the charges and the driver will be asked to sign the citation. Signing the ticket is not an admission of guilt. It is a promise to appear in the listed court or pay the amount owed no later than the specified date. Once a driver receives a traffic ticket, it is important to take action before the specified date. Failure to appear in court or take action as instructed on the ticket may result in driver's license suspension, and the court has the ability to issue fines, charge the driver with a misdemeanor, and issue a warrant for their arrest. Typically, the violator has options when receiving a traffic ticket such as pleading guilty and paying the traffic fine, paying to go to traffic school or defensive driving, providing proof of correction if the ticket was issued for a correctable violation, such as a faulty tail light, appearing in court, or asking for a trowel while maintaining innocence. If a driver refuses to sign the citation, the officer is required by law to take the individual into custody and present that person before a judge for arraignment on the charges. In my state, we cannot arrest for open container or speeding unless the driver refuses to sign the citation, and then we would arrest him only for the purposes of taking the straight to the magistrate. It's officer discretion whether or not a person is given the citation or arrested. A lot of it depends on the circumstances and the situation. If you have a person that's committed multiple violations and they're uncooperative. Maybe they don't have a driver's license and they can't tell you who they are, where they live, I'm more inclined to probably arrest that person on those charges versus giving them Vehicle Traffic Stops 5 Video Transcript Vehicle Traffic Stops a citation. Also, when I stop somebody on traffic, I'm going to run their driver's license to see if they've been handled before, and if so, for what. If there's a record on them of failure to appear, which means they were given tickets in the past but they failed to go to court on, then that tells me they're probably not going to go to court on mine as well, so I'll go and make an arrest then. And also we're checking them for warrants from other jurisdictions. I mean, if they have warrants after the arrest from somewhere else, it's ,y obligation at that point to serve the ward once I validate that it is clear. As far as a passenger being arrested, if they're normally not arrested unless there's maybe narcotics in the car or maybe they get out on their own, can a police officer go up to the passer and ask them to identify themselves, yes, I can. It's just simple who are you, because I like to know who I'm talking to. I may or may not run that person to see if they have any warrants. If I'm going to arrest the person-- the driver-- of the vehicle course I can't leave the car there, so the car has to go somewhere. So my options are if he's got a friend he can let his friend take it, or we didn't have the car towed. But before I let the friend take it, I'm going to make sure that guy has a good driver's record, and there is no warrant for his arrest as well, so that's about the only time. 3. Risks Law enforcement officers often face dangerous situations during traffic stops. Highrisk stops pose a significant risk to officers. Situations which may be considered high risk involve known or suspected felons, an armed individual, or any potentially dangerous person. When a police officer has a reasonable belief that a vehicle contains an individual that falls into this category, the officer must employ a set of tactics significantly different from those used in a low or unknown risk stop. Some of the techniques used to assess risk in the traffic stop really depends on the type of stop itself. As an officer, am I stopping this car because they ran a red light? Maybe they were speeding. In that case-- and I hate using this word, "routine." Really, nothing's ever routine in law enforcement. But it's a normal traffic stop. I'm still going to be very aware of my surroundings and the situation. I'm going to approach cautiously and keep all my officer safety training in mind while I'm dealing with the occupants in the vehicle. There are many actions an officer can take to ensure the safety of everyone involved. On your approach from your vehicle to the violator vehicle, always make sure the vehicle's in park. And you can do that by simply touching the car, pushing on the car. The trunk of a vehicle, the trunk of an SUV, make sure it's shut when you go by it. Vehicle Traffic Stops 6 Video Transcript Vehicle Traffic Stops That's to let you know that there's not somebody hiding in the trunk that's going to ambush you. Not only that, if you come up here and you make your approach and everything's good and you turn to talk to the subject and he pulls a gun and shoots you, dispatch has the information on the vehicle. But to confirm that it is this vehicle, your fingerprints are now on that car where the crime scene unit can fingerprint the car and go, hey, this is the car that was stopped because his fingerprints are on that car. Officer safety considerations should automatically dictate the assessment of each situation. Safety and security should always come first. While no tactical approach is perfect, proper planning is essential. At the high-risk stops or felony stops, these are times when maybe I know that the car is stolen because I've called into dispatch the license plate number and they've come back-- the vehicle's stolen. So I already know it's going to be a high-risk stop or maybe the occupants in the vehicle are fleeing from the scene of a crime. The way that I would approach the two are very different. If it's a high-risk stop, it's going to be more than just one officer. And there might be five officers there. You know, I'm going to follow until my other units arrive, and then we'll make the stop, and we'll put our cars accordingly and eventually get the suspects out of the vehicle. We're going to get the occupants all out of the car one at a time. And if you've ever watched episodes of Cops where they show the officers making a felony stop and everybody rushes the car, that's not done anymore. You know, you have to realize that usually time is on your side and you make the most of it. So you're going to order these people out of the car. If they choose not to come out, now you're looking at a possible barricaded subject. You might get your SWAT team involved, hostage negotiators and stuff like that. There's been times when the canines have been used, again, to get people out of the cars. But we're going to get the people out of the car, get them into our space, put each one into custody. And then, once we feel like we have everybody out of the vehicle, then we'll make an approach in a tactical sense to the car, checking the trunk, making sure nobody's inside the trunk, and then checking the car to make sure nobody else is in the car. And then once we're pretty sure that nobody's in there, then we'll call it all clear and continue about our business. Sometimes a vehicle traffic stop can get out of hand and a violator may not want to pull over. Police pursuits are one of the most dangerous encounters an officer will experience. Pursuits present a significant risk to the safety of law enforcement officers Vehicle Traffic Stops 7 Video Transcript Vehicle Traffic Stops and the safety of the public. Sometimes when we're making traffic stops, sometimes a violator doesn't want to stop for whatever reasons. Maybe they feel they have warrants. Maybe they just don't like the police so they're just not going to stop. And then that might initiate a pursuit. Sometimes during the pursuit the officer has to determine why I'm chasing this person. Is it because they ran the red light? Do I have their license plate number? The time of day, the night, the weather situation-- are we in the middle of the city? Are we going through school zones or are we out on the interstate? So we have to kind of keep all these things into perspective, and we have to always remember that we are responsible for our own driving. And just because I'm in a pursuit and my red and blue lights are on and my siren's going on doesn't that I don't have to clear my intersections, and I'm still liable for my actions. You know, if we determine that I have enough information that I can get a warrant on this person later on, I'll terminate the pursuit, especially if it deems to be very hazardous. There are sometimes, though, that when a pursuit is initiated-- maybe they're pursuing a felon or whatever the case may be-- and in some agencies across the country, they have a policy where they will allow their officers to use what's called a pit maneuver. It's a form of force. Basically, it's where the officer will get up to the core panel of the fleeing vehicle and they will just take their car and just start nudging it over. And the fleeing vehicle will end up doing a 360-degree turn and end up stopping. But, again, there's time and place when they can do that. There was a case on the East Coast, I think, where the officer pitted a vehicle in excess of 120 miles an hour. The driver survived the accident, but he's a quadriplegic today. Was that worth it? So you have to ask these questions of yourself. They also have the spikes that they use, the tire-deflating devices. You know, the officers have to undergo training to do this because it puts the officer at risk of injury, severe injury, maybe even death, because I'm leaving the comfort of my vehicle to go stand in there with a 3,000 pound car zooming at me, and hopefully he won't try to run over me. But these are all tools that we can use to end a pursuit. Vehicle Traffic Stops 8