The Unambiguous Danger in the Traffic Stop

On Thursday, I walked out of the Shorewood Citizens' Police Academy feeling like I had been repeatedly punched in the gut.

That’s because for roughly two hours, we watched video after video of police officers being mowed down by gunfire or beaten within an inch of their lives while during “vehicle contacts"— or, as they're more commonly known, traffic stops.

But really, the routine traffic stop is anything but routine for police nowadays.

It seems simple enough. You speed or forgot to renew your vehicle registration and that squad that’s been tailing you for blocks throws on those lights, echoing red and blue onto nearby buildings.

You shell out the license and registration and get your warning or ticket.

But it has steadily become the deadliest part of law enforcement’s job. Over a nine-year period (2000-2009) 118 officers nationwide lost their lives while doing a vehicle contact.

'So many guns'

Shorewood Sgt. Jeff Schmidt, who runs the class, also covered traffic accidents and their decreasing rate across the nation — and was supposed to hand the class over to Sgt. Mike Kerr to give a talk about drunken driving, but ran out of time — however the majority of Thursday's material, and really the topic that reverberated most for me, was how quickly a typical traffic stop can turn for the worst.

You just never know what you’ll find when you pull a car over.

“There are so many guns out there,” Schmidt said. “When I have a traffic stop at night, my heart starts pumping.”

He gave a local example, complete with dash cam footage, of a stop in Shorewood some years back where he stopped a car and the driver jumped out frantically saying his friend had been shot in the head.

After handcuffing the driver and calling for backup, Schmidt and other officers sure enough found a man in the back seat of the car, dead from a gunshot wound to the head.

That’s a surprising find on a traffic stop, but the truly startling aspect is on such stops there are some gun-wielding crazy folks who are intent on causing serious bodily harm and/or death to police.

I'm not immune to the fact that the majority of traffic stops don't end with a dead police officer, but surprised at the knowledge that of all of the things police do, a traffic stop is the most dangerous.

Danger has changed tactics

Law enforcement officials have changed the way they perform traffic stops over time, and follow some rules and general tactics to provide a little more safety.

Police either park in what they call an offset position, parking 15 feet from the car and not directly in line with the car — a few more feet into traffic than the stopped car.

With the offset position, police making a stop at night can use their headlights or shine a spotlight on the car. That leads into another tactic — illuminating the car during a traffic stop as much as possible, so all the driver sees is light.

Others park their squad at an angle behind a stopped car, which provides cover for an officer in case danger presents itself.

If the environment doesn't allow for either position, police will have to park in an in-line position

Police are also vigilant of other factors. How many people are in the car? Are there pets? Is the trunk popped? (Because someone is hiding in there; it’s happened apparently.) Does the car have tinted windows? Is the driver overly nervous? Is the engine revving as officers approach the car?

Once they go in to engage a driver, Schmidt said local officers remain behind the car door, which forces the driver to turn their body back toward them and allows the officer a chance to react if a gun or weapon is all of a sudden presented.

Just this week, I was driving west on East Capitol Drive and there happened to be a traffic stop in progress. The first thing I noticed was three officers using some of the tactics Schmidt talked about in Thursday’s class.

Schmidt said local officers try running license plates before engaging in a traffic stop, to see what they are walking into and if they should take it in a different direction — that direction being a high-risk stop.

Police perform these stops when they believe the car they are going to stop is stolen or it becomes apparent there are weapons, drugs or other suspicious activity associated with the car.

The Dominic Newman incident

, first reported by yours truly, which caused some controversy in the village and developed into a miniature media frenzy in the Milwaukee metro area.

If you don't recall the incident, track coach and physical education teacher Dominic Newman said he was angry as hell after police from Shorewood, Whitefish Bay and Glendale performed a high-risk traffic stop on the car he was driving.

Newman said police forced him from his car at gunpoint and that the stop was racially motivated, being that he's an African-American. Shorewood's deputy police chief said his officers received a report that Newman was driving a stolen car and acted appropriately, following police training protcol for the situation.

Schmidt reaffirmed the deputy chief's point in Thursday’s class, saying police have to take into account their own safety.

Schmidt said the high-risk traffic stop was developed and syndicated nationwide after the “Newhall Massacre” in 1970. (It's OK to link to Wikipedia every once in a while.) Four California highway patrolmen were gunned down following a report that the car they planned to stop had firearms inside.

Hopefully, next week I'll have something equally as interesting, but less disturbing to share.