The Authority of Police to Remove Occupants of a Vehicle During Routine Traffic Stops
Clients often ask about the authority of police to remove occupants of a vehicle during a routine traffic stop. The authority to do so, where applicable, varies by legal jurisdiction.
Under federal law, police are authorized to ask the driver and other occupants to exit a vehicle during an otherwise lawful traffic stop. State law varies on the topic. Some states follow the federal rule, while others impose higher legal requirements on police before removing the occupants of a vehicle. This article clarifies when police can and cannot ask you to exit a motor vehicle.
Conditions for a Traffic Stop and Exit Orders
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Constitutional law and criminal procedure, under both federal and state law, uniformly empower police to stop motor vehicles under certain circumstances. These circumstances include when an officer observes the vehicle commit a traffic infraction, and when an officer has reasonable suspicion or probable cause to believe the car contains evidence of a crime or its occupant(s) are engaged in criminal activity. What is not uniform among federal and state laws is when police have the power to remove the occupants of a lawfully stopped or seized motor vehicle.
A request by police to occupants to vacate or step out from inside a vehicle is called an exit order. Exit orders may be given to the operator and/or passengers of a vehicle.
Federal Law on Exit Orders
Under federal law, exit orders are permitted for the driver and any passengers of a lawfully stopped motor vehicle. This rule was announced by the United States Supreme Court in Pennsylvania v. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 109-110 (1977). The Court based the ruling on officer safety.
The Mimms Court indicated that authorizing police to ask occupants to exit a lawfully stopped vehicle reduced the possibility that drivers or passengers may engage in unobserved movements or behavior and reduced the risk of the officer becoming a victim of assault as they approached persons seated inside a vehicle. The Court further reasoned that asking occupants to step out from a stopped vehicle onto the shoulder of the road would also reduce the hazards of accidental injuries to police officers from passing traffic.
State Law Variations
Many states, such as Rhode Island, follow the federal rule. Other states have different rules. For example, in Massachusetts, police may not issue an exit order to the occupants of a lawfully stopped vehicle unless they have particularized reasonable suspicion of criminal activity; objective, reasonable apprehension, or heightened awareness of danger to police or others; or pragmatic reasons to do so (such as to facilitate an independent permissible search of the car under the automobile exception or some other exception to the warrant requirement). This heightened standard provides even greater protections to occupants of motor vehicles than otherwise afforded under federal law.
Legal Assistance After a Traffic Stop
If you have been charged with a crime following a motor vehicle stop and exit order by police, please contact the RI Criminal Defense Law Office of John L. Calcagni III, Inc. today for a free consultation at (401) 351-5100.