Hello fellow officers,

 

in this post, I'll describe how to conduct a safe Felony Traffic Stop.

 

I hope this information will find your interest and will help you to conduct Felony Traffic Stops in a safe manner.

If you have any questions, additions or concerns, please do not hesitate to post them in this topic or drop me a PM.

 

 

 

What is a Felony Traffic Stop?

A felony traffic stop is a high-risk situation in law enforcement, where officers must stop a suspect's vehicle who is already known to be a possible threat.

These stops are inherently dangerous and require careful planning, communication, and execution to ensure the safety of all involved officers and the individual(s) in the vehicle.

 

 

Dangers of a Felony Traffic Stop

 

1. Unknown Threats:
   Felony stops often involve individuals suspected of serious crimes, and the level of danger can be unpredictable.
   Occupants may be armed or have access to weapons, increasing the risk to officers.
    
2. High Stress Levels:
   The heightened tension and stress associated with felony stops can lead to mistakes or poor decision-making if not managed properly.
    
3. Risk of Escalation:
   There is a potential for the situation to escalate quickly, especially if the individuals in the vehicle are desperate to avoid arrest or believe they have nothing to lose.
    
4. Crossfire Concerns:
   In a multiple-officer response, the risk of crossfire between officers is a significant concern, and coordination is crucial to avoid friendly fire incidents.

 

 

 

Conduct a safe Felony Traffic Stop

 

Communication with Dispatch is essential for your safety.

Prior to making the stop, you should relay following information to Dispatch:
 

1. location
2. license plate of suspect's vehicle
3. brief description of the suspect's vehicle and, if possible, description and number of occupant(s)

 

 

You should always wait for the response of Dispatch after running a license plate.

Once the decision has been made to conduct a Felony Traffic Stop, call for back up and wait for back up to arrive. Under no circumstances should you try to do it on your own.

 

If possible, have the driver pull off of the roadway. The stop should always be done in a safe location out of traffic and away from pedestrians. Again, relay your location to Dispatch.

Abandoned areas or areas which are known for gang activities are to be avoided.

 

 

Vehicle position

The patrol car is to be positioned in a way that it provides the most protection and safety for you.

One way is to position the patrol car in a matter such that half of the vehicle's width is into the lane of travel. This provides a safe lane of approach to the suspect’s driver door, as it blocks rear approaching traffic from driving directly into your foot path.

 

The patrol car should be kept at a distance of 15 to 20 feet behind the suspect's vehicle.

 

 

Exit the patrol car as fast and safe as possible and wait for backup. Once out, draw your weapon and take cover behind the opened driver door or behind the patrol car.

Do not engage the suspect's vehicle alone.

 

When back up has arrived, is in position and covering you, command the occupant(s) out of the vehicle, one at a time, in the following order:

1. driver
2. front seat passenger
3. left rear seat passenger
4. right rear seat passenger
5. middle rear sear passenger
    

Each suspect is to be searched and arrested before another suspect is commanded out of the vehicle.

 

 

 

Sources:
https://stewartjessica.weebly.com/uploads/2/0/8/7/20878860/formal_project.pdf

https://ridgelymd.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/02/RPD-General-Order-5-1-Procedures-for-Traffic-Stops.pdf

https://walkerbryant.gitbook.io/chp-sop/chapter-1-law-enforcement-code-of-ethics/1.4-isp-standards

https://chat.openai.com

Edited December 6, 20232 yr by Jebediah Turner

Thank you, this is useful for my RP !

Outdated but still fun to watch:

 

Edited December 19, 20232 yr by unitedOrange66

Just seeing this as I don't really browse the forums much, but thought I'd say something. 

 

A lot of the points here are good, but there are a few things I would change or do differently. In addition I want to talk about the way that I have been shown to do high-risk stops and how I have since trained people in FiveM to do it. As stated, I'm a FiveM player. So a lot of what I'm saying may only mainly apply to real life and FiveM, not necessarily FiveM.

 

To start, you'll see me refer to felony traffic stops as high-risk stops. This is just what we call them from where I'm from and what I'm used to. Both have the same meaning, just different names. 

 

"...where officers must stop a suspect's vehicle who is already known to be a possible threat"

 

Not necessarily, it doesn't have to be that they are a known potential threat. I may pull over a vehicle that came back stolen, but other than that I may have no other information on the case, I will conduct a high-risk stop. Not because they are a known potential threat, because they are a potential threat. 

 

"High Stress Levels"

 

Nothing wrong with this, this is a great point. I feel as if it was not brought up a lot during trainings in FiveM. High-risk stops are very stressful situations with a lot of different variables. At any point the stop can go wrong, so it is important to stay at least collected during the stop. 

 

"...call for back up and wait for back up to arrive" and "Exit the patrol car as fast and safe as possible and wait for backup. Once out, draw your weapon and take cover behind the opened driver door or behind the patrol car"

 

This is something I would heavily recommend not doing unless you absolutely have to. If I have identified a vehicle that needs to have a high-risk stop conducted on it, I'm letting dispatch know the same information listed and waiting till I have at least two other officers with me (three in total) and only then would I turn on my lights. I also understand that you may want to conduct the high-risk before they exit/enter a certain area, but I would only do that as a last case scenario. And if I have to do something like and wait for other officers to arrive, I am flooding that vehicle with light and moving away from my vehicle to a new position of cover. 

 

Theres a concept known as the metal coffin, where the longer you spend around/near your car, the more likely you are to get hurt. And say you follow the advice given to take cover behind the vehicle door or behind the vehicle, all a shooter from within the car has to do is aim at the vehicle and they'll hit something eventually. If I can make myself a smaller target, I will do so. 

 

"Abandoned areas..."

I understanding avoiding areas with high gang population. But why abandoned areas? If I was conducting a high-risk, I would prefer them to pull into a more desolated or abandoned area. It reduces the risk of collateral damage to the general public. It allows officers to do more to potentially prevent an escape. It also helps to not have the public breathing down your neck when conducting it. 

 

"Each suspect is to be searched and arrested before another suspect is commanded out of the vehicle."

Yes and no. However with how I train high-risk, we don't do it like this. If other officers are on scene, once an arresting officer brings back a suspect, another officer will step into that position to continue with the stop while the person is being searched, detained, and questioned. 

 

---

 

I train high-risk in a method I call "preferred positions". Many times when you're on a high-risk stop in FiveM, you'll hear people calling out, "I have commands", "I have lethal", "I have the arrest" and such. You'll also tend to see officers stacking up behind up each other. Preferred positions eliminates this by having every person already have an assigned role by the position you're in. So if you're the passenger of the second patrol vehicle, you're the arresting officer be default. Driver of the first vehicle is the commanding officer of the stop by default. Full descriptions below. 

 

Quote

Primary deputy 1 (C1): Responsible for the entire evolution (vehicle, suspects, etc). The primary deputy issues verbal commands over the public address system to the suspects, and handles radio communications as needed. They also watch the driver (left) side of the vehicle. 

 

Primary deputy 2 (C2): Responsible for suspect control and also detaining, searching and debriefing the suspect(s) as they are taken into custody and will ensure that the suspects are securely placed into a patrol vehicle. The role of this deputy is likely to pass from deputy to deputy throughout the stop. This deputy along with C3 will later move up to clear the vehicle once it is believed that all suspects are in custody. 

 

Primary deputy 3 (C3): Responsible for watching the driver (left) side of the vehicle, and informing the commanding deputy of anything they see. This deputy along with C2 will later move up to clear the vehicle once it is believed that all suspects are in custody. 

 

Primary deputy 4 (C4): Responsible for watching the passenger (right) side of the vehicle, and informing the commanding deputy of anything they see. 

 

Additional deputies: Any additional deputies will serve a variety of roles. Some will be responsible for controlling traffic. Other deputies will be responsible for replacing the C2 deputy. Others will be on standby in case any vehicle occupant bailouts. None of the primary deputies are allowed to pursue a bailout subject unless the only number of units on scene are the minimum (three).

 

 

The commands given to the occupants should follow something like the following:

 

Spoiler

 

 

It is important to remember to give clear and concise commands, but not ones that are too specific. Commands like  "Do a 360°" or "Take 4 steps to your left" may confuse the suspect or other officers on scene. 

 

We find this method to work better and is smoother. However, it is important that high-risk stops are high stress situations. If you were to arrive onto a scene and the commanding officer is not doing the high-risk in the same as you know it or were trained, just follow along. The worst thing you can do in a situation like that is to stop and say, "Hey, lets actually do it like". Unless the way the commanding officer is detrimental to officer safety, just let the stop evolve and deal with it afterwards. 

 

If anyone has any questions, please let me know. I'll be happy to answer.