A recent inci­dent has sparked debate over indi­vid­ual civ­il rights dur­ing a traf­fic stop. If a police offi­cer orders you to get out of your car, do you have to com­ply? The rou­tine traf­fic stop in Rochester last month esca­lat­ed when police smashed a man’s car win­dow and pulled him to the pave­ment. Rochester police said the forced removal of Marvin Taylor dur­ing the May 7 inci­dent was nec­es­sary because he refused to exit his vehi­cle when ordered to do so by officers.
Taylor, a 22-year-old Black man liv­ing in Rochester, said he was hes­i­tant to get out of his car because one of the offi­cers had his gun drawn and police on scene would­n’t tell him why they pulled him over.
Later, Taylor found out he was stopped for an expired inspec­tion stick­er and because he alleged­ly did­n’t sig­nal while mak­ing a turn on his way home. So do you have to leave your car if police tell you to do so? The answer, set­tled in a 1977 U.S. Supreme Courtcase known as Pennsylvania vs. Mimms, is yes.

Do you have to get out of your car for police?

The Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution pro­tects indi­vid­u­als from unrea­son­able search­es and seizures by the gov­ern­ment. This means that to ini­ti­ate a traf­fic stop in New York, police offi­cers must have prob­a­ble cause to believe that the dri­ver has com­mit­ted a traf­fic vio­la­tion or anoth­er offense.

In the 1977 case, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that police offi­cers may order an indi­vid­ual out of their vehi­cle dur­ing a traf­fic stop because the per­son has already been law­ful­ly detained ― albeit briefly. The court ruled that the offi­cers’ com­mand would not vio­late the Fourth Amendment. It called such orders a min­i­mal intru­sion to the indi­vid­u­al’s per­son­al lib­er­ty ― “a mere incon­ve­nience” ― com­pared to the added safe­ty it affords an officer.
*(This is a loop­hole the court made to police that they stead­fast­ly use to vio­late and lord over motorists they want to intim­i­date. Thank the Supreme Court.)*“The dri­ver is being asked to expose to view very lit­tle more of his per­son than is already exposed,” the deci­sion said. “The police have already law­ful­ly decid­ed that the per­son shall be briefly detained; the only ques­tion is whether he shall spend that peri­od sit­ting in the dri­ver’s seat of his car or stand­ing along­side it.”

Do police have to give you a reason for a traffic stop?

While police must have prob­a­ble cause to ini­ti­ate a traf­fic stop, in New York and most places there are no laws that require them to imme­di­ate­ly tell you why you were pulled over. Lawmakers in California, Connecticut and Minnesota are chang­ing course, though. In California and Minnesota, police must now pro­vide rea­son­ing for a traf­fic stop before they ques­tion dri­vers on any sub­ject ― unless there is an immi­nent threat present. In Connecticut, police have until the end of the inter­ac­tion to tell a dri­ver why they were stopped. Lawmakers in all three states said they were push­ing for changes to pro­mote equi­ty and account­abil­i­ty in police patrols and lim­it pre­tex­tu­al stops, a tech­nique where offi­cers use minor infrac­tions like a bro­ken tail­light as a gate­way to search for evi­dence for unre­lat­ed crimes.Research shows that Black dri­vers are more like­ly to be sub­ject to pre­tex­tu­al stops than their white coun­ter­parts. In many cas­es, these traf­fic stops for minor infrac­tions have turned com­bat­ive or dead­ly for Black motorists.

More: Two traf­fic stops, two out­comes: Comparing Doorley and Taylor incidents

Scarlet Neath, pol­i­cy direc­tor at the Center for Policing Equity, point­ed to a 2023 study that found “in stops that end in force and oth­er esca­la­tion, offi­cers are more like­ly to begin with a com­mand and less like­ly to explain the rea­son for a stop.” In advo­cat­ing for the California leg­is­la­tion, the non­prof­it Oakland Privacy argued that shar­ing the rea­son for a traf­fic stop can abate a dri­ver’s fear or pan­ic dur­ing the sit­u­a­tion. “There is sim­ply no rea­son not to do this,” the group said in a state­ment to the Los Angeles Times. “The role of law enforce­ment is to enforce the law, not to play cat-and-mouse games to try to pro­voke peo­ple into doing the wrong thing and caus­ing the encounter to spi­ral out of con­trol.”

What are your rights during a traffic stop?

The American Civil Liberties Union has pub­lished a guide to help peo­ple under­stand their rights when they are stopped by police. The guide also includes strate­gies for han­dling police encoun­ters. Here is some of their guidance:

• Stay calm and in con­trol of your words, body lan­guage and emo­tions. Don’t run and don’t resist, even if you believe you are innocent.
• If you are in the car, pull over, turn on the inter­nal lights and open the win­dow. Keep your hands where the police can see them. Upon request, show the police your dri­ver’s license, reg­is­tra­tion and proof of insurance.
• If you are arrest­ed, ask for a lawyer imme­di­ate­ly. If you believe your rights were vio­lat­ed, write down every­thing you remem­ber about the sit­u­a­tion as soon as possible.
• You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer police ques­tions. If you wish to exer­cise this right, it is best to say so out loud.
• You do not have to con­sent to a search of your­self or your belong­ings, includ­ing your car. Refusing con­sent may not stop the offi­cer from car­ry­ing out the search, but it could help pre­serve your rights in lat­er legal pro­ceed­ings. If you are arrest­ed, your car will be sub­ject to search.

— Kayla Canne reports on com­mu­ni­ty jus­tice and safe­ty efforts for the Democrat and Chronicle.