If Cops Demand Your Window Down, DO THIS...

[RandomNumbers]

43. Question - if it's likely a traffic stop, why not just roll down the window before they even walk up?

I mean, they don't ever just pull someone over and then NOT ask for the window down, right?

Every time I've been stopped (thankfully not recently at all), it's taken the cop a seemingly interminable time to step out of the car and approach. I presumed they were running my plate, and finding out that I'm probably clean. Is that process faster these days?

Anything I can do to make a traffic stop go faster, I want to do. If I legit did something ticket-worthy, just write the damn ticket and give it to me. If it's a speeding thing I can (at least, could in the distant past) usually make it go away if I wasn't too much over, but other than that it isn't worth my time and the potential risk of pissing them off to spend any time discussing it.

Assuming the weather permits, I would usually roll down the window, turn off the radio, put hands on the wheel and wait. When they walk up, if opportune I will greet them pleasantly. They're gonna tell me why they stopped me. If it's not legit I'll deal with it later. I agree with informing them clearly where you are reaching before doing it, to get any paperwork they ask for, and doing that slowly.

I guess in some places and depending on your skin tone (sigh), perhaps it doesn't apply, but I've never had any problem with local or state ACTUAL police. They have a job to do and most of them are normal decent people just trying to do it the way they're supposed to. If you draw the bad apple that day, don't do anything to make the situation worse, is all, and you will probably live. (I would advise not making any traffic errors while having a gun in your glovebox ... for me, easier to not have a gun in the glovebox ...)