What To Expect At A Montgomery County Traffic Stop
In Montgomery County, either county police or state troopers will pull someone over with their lights and sirens if they believed a traffic or criminal offense has taken place. They might even run a license plate and pull over a car for reasons unknown to the driver. People should always heed the officers and pull over their vehicles if they are being followed with lights and sirens even if they think they committed no driving infractions.
Police officers will generally be more cautious at night and more friendly or casual during the day. As a standard practice, they will ask the person what they are doing. Law enforcement officials have the right to ask a driver for their name and driver’s license, as there are certain laws that require people to provide their license and registration upon request to any law enforcement. The officers are within their rights to lawfully ask for those even for no reason at all when pulling someone over.
Often, individuals do not know what to expect at a Montgomery County traffic stop. Reach out to a knowledgeable traffic attorney to learn about your rights following a police stop.
The Traffic Stop Process
When someone sees lights and hears sirens, they should pull over to the side of the road as quickly and safely as possible. If there is not immediately a safe area, they may want to signal with their turn signal or their hazard lights that they are slowing down and looking for a place to stop. They want to stop in a safe place so as to not put the officer on edge or put the officer at risk of their safety. When pulling over, you should not do so on a blind turn and not on a narrow shoulder, but a place where they can safely interact with the officer.
Pulling Over
In a traffic stop after a person is pulled over, they want to turn off the vehicle, lower the windows, so the officers know that they are willing to interact with them and not being resistant. Also, for their safety, the officers are going to want to see their hands on the wheel and not immediately reaching for things. People may sometimes try to expedite the traffic stop by getting everything together, license, insurance registration quickly to speed up the process. A lot of reaching around at the beginning of a traffic stop may be considered “furtive movement” and give the officer a reason to legally extend the traffic stop.
Initial Police Interaction
After someone is pulled over, the next part comes interacting with the officer. If the officer wants to see anything, they will ask the driver to produce it. Sometimes they may not even ask for those licenses or to prove insurance and registrations. They may simply want to speak to the driver and verify who is in the car and talk about possible traffic violations.
After someone is pulled over and interacting with the police officer, they want to be polite and courteous even if they disagree as to why they are being pulled over. An officer is within their rights to delay the traffic stop to a certain amount of reasonable time. Even if the driver is in a rush or just frustrated by being pulled over, the police can lawfully delay the stop, and they might do so if the driver warrants further investigation.
Answering The Officer’s Questions
Drivers have to answer some basic questions posed by the officer, such as their name, where they live, date of birth, and provide things like registration and insurance. Beyond that, they do not have to say much more and definitely not any specifics about what they are doing while they are in the car and where they are going.
A person has to weigh the benefits of refusing to answer any questions versus asserting their rights, but essentially, they do not have to answer any question that could incriminate them. This includes questions such as, “do you know how fast you were going.”
Also, there is no requirement to give consent to search the car just because the officer asks. The driver can refuse to answer those questions or tell the officer they give no consent.
A driver can feel free to ask the officer questions, but when pulled over, avoid making statements that will be seen as admissions of guilt in court.
Verifying Insurance, License, and Registration
After that, they can expect the officer will take them and use it to verify whether there are any outstanding warrants for the driver. The officers are going to run the driver’s name against their police records for open investigations and suspects. If the stop becomes a more prolonged investigation such as suspected firearms or drug charges, the stopping officer may call for additional backup, additional car units, or even K-9 if they want to investigate for drugs.
No matter what is happening during the delay process, the person should remain relatively still and wait as patiently as possible. Because any shifting movement, getting out of their car, or just reaching around to various compartments may make the officer suspicious and delay their traffic stop even longer.
Exiting the Vehicle
The driver must not leave the vehicle while interacting with the police officer. There are very few circumstances where someone should exit the vehicle. If they do exit the vehicle, they should exit with their hands fully raised and state loudly the reason they have gotten out of their car. It would probably only be for emergency health situations or some other unforeseen emergency beyond simply the traffic stop is taking too long. Do not exit the car unnecessarily as that will cue a safety risk to the officer or an attempt to flee, and that will escalate the situation in their view.
Wanting to explain something or hand paperwork over that they forgot is not a good reason to exit your vehicle. All those things can be handled when the officer comes back to the vehicle to return with the ticket citation or a warning.
Issuing a Ticket
At the time of the stop, even if someone is frustrated and just wants to leave, they should briefly look at the ticket to make sure that it is legible, that they can see who the officers are, and that it is legible. The driver will need to get numbers such as the citation number on the ticket because that is what they are going to use later in court to figure out who the witnesses are, what exactly they are charged with, and where they might need to appear.
If the ticket is not legible, that might become an issue later in court where they were not properly issued the ticket under the right citation number.
Pulled Over By An Unmarked Vehicle
If stopped by an undercover officer, a driver can ask for identification, a badge number, or they can ask for a supervisor to be called to the scene. These requests may prolong their stop but provide security that the person they are actually interacting with is a real police officer.
If they are uncomfortable and have reason to believe that it is not an actual police officer, they are within their rights to call 911 even as they are being pulled over and ask the radio dispatch operator to verify with police radio that the person pulling them over is a police officer. Even undercover officers should have access to the police dispatch radio so the location can be verified by their superior officers.
How a Traffic Attorney Could Help
It is important for individuals to know and understand their rights during a traffic stop. Understanding your rights can help you avoid any harsh consequences, such as extra charges or a guilty conviction. Speak to a seasoned attorney to learn about what to expect at a Montgomery County traffic stop.
Call today to learn your rights.