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Don’t Talk to the Cops? What Really Happens During a Traffic Stop: From a Former LAPD Motor Cop · Connor with Honor: AI, Real Estate and Real Life

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Whenever I talk to people about getting traffic tickets, a lot of them fall back on some of the Instagram and TikTok and even YouTube shorts where people are basically not rolling their window down, not communicating with the police, they're just sitting in the car and they have their video camera rolling, and of course hops always have theirs, at least most of them in this day and age.
• 0:20
  SPEAKER_00: So then you have this uh this standoff.
• 0:22
  SPEAKER_00: You have the police officer that needs to identify the driver, and then some people say, well, the driver doesn't have to give up his identity.
• 0:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then I need to say that I think they do only for the basic reason that the officer stopped them for some traffic violation.
• 0:38
  SPEAKER_00: That's if in fact this is what happened.
• 0:40
  SPEAKER_00: Just walking up to somebody, I know there was that that locked the legal case, Turner versus Driver.
• 0:47
  SPEAKER_00: Look that up.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: That was some cat standing out in front of a police station filming.
• 0:51
  SPEAKER_00: Total contempt of copy.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: He's out there filming in the police station and people coming in and going out.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And yeah, of course, that's probably irritating for the police officers.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: And in this day, you really don't know what and the reasons they're doing this.
• 1:07
  SPEAKER_00: But again, he was doing it, and maybe he thought he had the right, and of course he did, per the Constitution, but I don't know.
• 1:13
  SPEAKER_00: It's like going, you have the right to maybe go walk along the freeway or along a busy street or even cross a street legally outside of marked crosswalks if there happens to be some break or another street in there, as long as you don't interfere with traffic.
• 1:29
  SPEAKER_00: But if you have traffic on that street going 50, 60 miles an hour, and you're going to cross at maybe a non-signal controlled intersection, you know, that's totally up to you.
• 1:39
  SPEAKER_00: It's your life, you can do that.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Going just to mess with people, just for the heck of it, it's a lot of views and a lot of hearts and a lot of talk.
• 1:48
  SPEAKER_00: But I don't know if it's the best thing in the world, at least maybe not for me.
• 1:51
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe other people need to go make a stand.
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they don't have anything better to do, maybe they don't have a job, I don't know.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: But again, that's his way.
• 1:59
  SPEAKER_00: So what what ended up happening with that particular case, and you can look it up, is basically they sided with this individual that was out there filming the police stations.
• 2:08
  SPEAKER_00: Now, a traffic stop, not the same.
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: So you're in a vehicle, you have to have a license, you have to be authorized by the state which you're in, or another state that has some kind of reciprocal agreement with other states to allow those driver's licenses to work.
• 2:24
  SPEAKER_00: And I know that does change from country to country.
• 2:26
  SPEAKER_00: There's an international driver's license, lots of different factors that are going to impact a person driving here, let's say in Southern California.
• 2:34
  SPEAKER_00: But let's say they're in a vehicle and they're driving and they get stopped for a traffic violation.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: At that particular moment, the moment that police officer needs to identify who this person is.
• 2:46
  SPEAKER_00: So if they're not rolling down the window enough to exchange those documents or that paper, that that's an issue.
• 2:53
  SPEAKER_00: The officer cannot see what they need to see.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Then people say, Well, why the hell should I show them anything?
• 3:00
  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, the police officer is going to have to have them get out of the car.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Now that's where the weird point comes in.
• 3:07
  SPEAKER_00: What's the best way to do that?
• 3:09
  SPEAKER_00: Now that police officer, of course, is on the clock, and this person has their windows up now, all the doors locked, and they're not really a threat.
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: They're sitting, their hands are at the 10 and 2, let's say on the wheel, and they're not posing any other problem besides not complying with what the officer's requesting.
• 3:28
  SPEAKER_00: Now, is the officer's request legal?
• 3:30
  SPEAKER_00: They have the traffic violation.
• 3:33
  SPEAKER_00: Let's all just submit to that.
• 3:35
  SPEAKER_00: There was an actual traffic violation.
• 3:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let's just say that.
• 3:37
  SPEAKER_00: So now the person's in the vehicle refusing to communicate, refusing to talk.
• 3:42
  SPEAKER_00: In the police officer's mind, maybe this person is in jeopardy.
• 3:45
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they've been poisoned.
• 3:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're sitting on some kind of an explosive trigger that somebody placed in that vehicle.
• 3:52
  SPEAKER_00: And he told them if they move their hands off the wheel, let's say, that car is going to explode and they're going to die.
• 3:58
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's a video camera there with some bad guy several blocks away watching this interaction, telling this person, if you speak with that police officer, we're going to blow up the car and blow up you.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know.
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe fantasy, but maybe that is what's going on.
• 4:13
  SPEAKER_00: Ultimately, how is that police officer going to get more interaction with the person in the car?
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: That's going to be up to them and their supervisor.
• 4:20
  SPEAKER_00: I'm sure that smashing the window open with their baton isn't going to help the matter.
• 4:26
  SPEAKER_00: If there is no threat, I would say that police officer can just wait and say, listen, I need to see your driver's license, proof of insurance, I need to identify who you are.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: The person doesn't have to tell the police officer anything.
• 4:40
  SPEAKER_00: The person, when the police officer goes up, if they're non-respondent, I'm Officer McIver, Los Angeles Police Department, good afternoon.
• 4:47
  SPEAKER_00: The reason why I stopped you is this and this.
• 4:49
  SPEAKER_00: I need to see, do you have any reason for doing that?
• 4:52
  SPEAKER_00: And then let's say they don't say anything, which I've had in in the past, they don't say anything at all.
• 4:57
  SPEAKER_00: Then my next step is, okay, well, I need to see your license, registration, and insurance.
• 5:01
  SPEAKER_00: And even if they don't say anything, they give me those documents, then I say I'll be back in just a moment.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: I'm going to issue you a citation.
• 5:07
  SPEAKER_00: Just stand by here.
• 5:08
  SPEAKER_00: It's safest for you to remain in the vehicle.
• 5:11
  SPEAKER_00: Go back, write the ticket, come back, explain it.
• 5:13
  SPEAKER_00: They sign it.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: I explain that you signing this is not an admission of guilt, just promising to take care of the citation in court in some way, shape, or form, uh, before or on that date.
• 5:24
  SPEAKER_00: So that's done.
• 5:25
  SPEAKER_00: So that's back up.
• 5:26
  SPEAKER_00: So I say I need to see your license, registration, insurance, and they don't move.
• 5:30
  SPEAKER_00: They just sit there.
• 5:32
  SPEAKER_00: So then, in my mind, literally, not jokingly, the trigger device bomb.
• 5:36
  SPEAKER_00: That's not in my mind.
• 5:37
  SPEAKER_00: My mind is what's wrong?
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: Do they have a stroke?
• 5:40
  SPEAKER_00: Is there some kind of a medical emergency now?
• 5:42
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe it's more than just a ticket.
• 5:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe, maybe they just left their house after killing everybody in their family.
• 5:50
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe have some issue.
• 5:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they were the victim of an assault by a police officer.
• 5:56
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they were being blackmailed by some cops and that they were sitting in the vehicle and they were scared that I was one of those that are coming after them and their family.
• 6:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's like a thousand different things that are going through my head at this time, but right now my horsepower being just a regular cop, and maybe some agencies are different, but I'm going to get want to get a second opinion on this.
• 6:17
  SPEAKER_00: Even though we are understanding of the law, reasonable suspicion, probable cause as it relates to arrest, search and seizure, these sorts of things, they don't.
• 6:28
  SPEAKER_00: I think the department should give even more updated training on these things and a lot more scenarios and a lot more testing.
• 6:35
  SPEAKER_00: Having said that, they gave us what they deemed was enough.
• 6:40
  SPEAKER_00: So here we have the traffic stop.
• 6:41
  SPEAKER_00: There was an infraction, a traffic violation.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: Let's get all crazy and say it was a speeding violation.
• 6:48
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say they were 15 miles an hour overposted.
• 6:51
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say I have it locked in the radar, the laser unit, whatever I was using that day.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say my speed estimation max matched up with that supportive evidence of the device I was using to capture that speed in a secondary level.
• 7:03
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say everything's lined up.
• 7:05
  SPEAKER_00: So let's all agree with that.
• 7:06
  SPEAKER_00: So now I'm here, they're not giving me any information.
• 7:09
  SPEAKER_00: They're sitting in the car, they're not respondent, they're staring in a blank stare.
• 7:14
  SPEAKER_00: My question is, are in fact, are they okay?
• 7:17
  SPEAKER_00: Is there an issue?
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Do I need to summon an ambulance or a paramedic?
• 7:21
  SPEAKER_00: Now I look in the car, I don't see them bleeding, I don't see any blood.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: It seems like they're breathing in the vehicle.
• 7:28
  SPEAKER_00: So then I'm going to run the plate, of course, if I haven't already, find out who this is, see if I can get a name, and then you know I get the description.
• 7:36
  SPEAKER_00: I'll say, John, are you Smith?
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Connor McIver.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: Can you hear me, John?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: Are you okay?
• 7:40
  SPEAKER_00: I'll knock on the window, maybe a little bit, knock on the front window, maybe maybe they have some medical emergency.
• 7:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe they're so stoned out of their mind.
• 7:50
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's a lot of different things.
• 7:52
  SPEAKER_00: But again, I'm not seeing all of that.
• 7:54
  SPEAKER_00: These are all just best guesses at this point, but it is unusual.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that being the case, then you know, the videos of police pulling out their baton and smashing the window open.
• 8:06
  SPEAKER_00: Yeah, there yet, folks.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: This is a traffic stop for an infraction.
• 8:10
  SPEAKER_00: The vehicle, let's say, comes back registered to this cat, it's to be impounded, doesn't have any crimes or warrants or anything like that attached to it.
• 8:18
  SPEAKER_00: Run the driver.
• 8:19
  SPEAKER_00: There's no warrants or anything attached to him or his license, potentially, if they can extract that from the DMV or the records as we are, you know, this traffic stop here.
• 8:30
  SPEAKER_00: And then that next particular part is I'm going to get a second set of eyes on this.
• 8:35
  SPEAKER_00: So then Connor's going to request a supervisor.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: So then my supervisor rolls out.
• 8:40
  SPEAKER_00: I walk back as I'm trying to, you know, be John Smith in the vehicle or at least watching, so there's no issue.
• 8:46
  SPEAKER_00: I walk back with my supervisor and I say, okay, do we do this as what happened?
• 8:50
  SPEAKER_00: I have this gentleman speeding.
• 8:52
  SPEAKER_00: I locked him in on laser, pulled him over, everything was fine.
• 8:54
  SPEAKER_00: He never rolled down the window.
• 8:56
  SPEAKER_00: I did tell him why I stopped him.
• 8:58
  SPEAKER_00: I asked him if he had any reason for his speed.
• 9:00
  SPEAKER_00: He didn't respond at all.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: I asked for his license, registration, insurance, and he still hasn't moved from having his hands on the wheel at 10 and 2 the entire time.
• 9:11
  SPEAKER_00: He hasn't moved the whole time.
• 9:13
  SPEAKER_00: He's just sitting there catatonic.
• 9:15
  SPEAKER_00: He's breathing.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: He's got respiration.
• 9:17
  SPEAKER_00: I don't see any obvious sifts symptoms of being under the influence.
• 9:22
  SPEAKER_00: You know, pupils seem to be normal.
• 9:24
  SPEAKER_00: He's not looking anywhere.
• 9:26
  SPEAKER_00: His respiration doesn't seem to be fast.
• 9:29
  SPEAKER_00: The best I can tell, you know, he's got some trauma.
• 9:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's got some kind of medical condition.
• 9:34
  SPEAKER_00: What do you suggest, sergeant?
• 9:36
  SPEAKER_00: And then the sergeant, lieutenant, or whoever my superior is, is going to make a determination and a suggestion.
• 9:42
  SPEAKER_00: But right now it's escalated to a point where now I'm concerned, as my sergeant is concerned, that this person is in some kind of danger.
• 9:52
  SPEAKER_00: I really don't know what that would be, but that's kind of it's going to play out.
• 9:56
  SPEAKER_00: Now we can wait, see, I get off shift in several hours, potentially, depending on time of day.
• 10:02
  SPEAKER_00: There's another cop that can come take my place.
• 10:05
  SPEAKER_00: There's a whole bunch.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: Somebody else will come.
• 10:10
  SPEAKER_00: And then after that, somebody else will come.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: Eventually, either his car is going to run out of gas or it's already shut off.
• 10:16
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say he's going to get hungry, have to go to the bathroom, or something like that.
• 10:20
  SPEAKER_00: But I believe that time, time factor is on our side.
• 10:25
  SPEAKER_00: Why would we want to go so far?
• 10:27
  SPEAKER_00: Why wouldn't we just say, you know what?
• 10:30
  SPEAKER_00: What a pain in the ass.
• 10:31
  SPEAKER_00: We're just going to move on to somebody else.
• 10:33
  SPEAKER_00: Bye-bye, John Smith.
• 10:34
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great day, and you leave.
• 10:36
  SPEAKER_00: Let's say John Smith was having some kind of medical emergency.
• 10:40
  SPEAKER_00: You imagine that liability?
• 10:41
  SPEAKER_00: He leaves that location.
• 10:43
  SPEAKER_00: He was already speeding.
• 10:44
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he just, like I said, killed his entire family.
• 10:47
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he ran some people down in a crosswalk.
• 10:50
  SPEAKER_00: We don't know yet.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's going to blow something up.
• 10:53
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he's having a medical emergency, like I spoke about.
• 10:57
  SPEAKER_00: So now we let him leave.
• 10:58
  SPEAKER_00: He goes out to carry out some kind of crime that he already had planned.
• 11:02
  SPEAKER_00: Now it's back on Connor.
• 11:04
  SPEAKER_00: And let's say he is under the influence and he runs a whole bunch of people over, killing them, injuring them.
• 11:09
  SPEAKER_00: Then it comes back to me.
• 11:10
  SPEAKER_00: Why'd you let him go?
• 11:11
  SPEAKER_00: And then let's say he has some kind of medical emergency and he strokes out down the road and actually dies.
• 11:17
  SPEAKER_00: Then again, back on me.
• 11:19
  SPEAKER_00: So from a liability perspective, you know, understand that people say, why don't you just let him go?
• 11:24
  SPEAKER_00: What's the big deal?
• 11:26
  SPEAKER_00: The big deal is we don't know now what's going on.
• 11:29
  SPEAKER_00: There was some reason why he was speeding.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe he wasn't paying attention, but with all the other factors thrown in there, there's a lot to unpack here.
• 11:39
  SPEAKER_00: And it looks a little confusing.
• 11:41
  SPEAKER_00: Put yourself in the police officer's shoes.
• 11:44
  SPEAKER_00: Whether you want to be associated with Bacon or not, think about it and think maybe what you would do.
• 11:50
  SPEAKER_00: Let me know in the comments.
• 11:51
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Connor with Honor.
• 11:52
  SPEAKER_00: We'll see you in the next one.