Packman
Member
If he does request that you step out of the vehicle, do so slowly and carefully, but lock and close the door. If the door is closed and locked, the "Terry" frisk reasonably must be limited to your person. (If you're on the same side of the locked door as the officer, than any items inside are equally inaccessible to you and him and are thus not a credible threat to his safety.)
I see this advocated a lot, and I agree with the sentiment and like the sound of it. But, here's where I'm stuck...
How do you do it? In most cases, your window is rolled down and your car turned off. The cop is probably not going to be very happy with you reaching for your keys to reactivate the window circuit, right? I somehow doubt he's going to be ok with you rolling the window back up in his face after he told you to step out of the car.
I've also seen a lot of comments in different places telling you to only roll the window down enough to speak with him, not all the way. Again, this makes sense, but would leaving it there be enough to prevent the Terry Frisk after you lock the door behind you?
I've been kinda pondering this for a while, sorry if this is a thread hijack.