When can a Police Officer Order you to Exit your Motor Vehicle after a traffic stop?

• Steven Topazio wrote this March 26, 2023 at 11:53 pm

The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court held that a police officer may order a driver of a motor vehicle to exit the vehicle during a traffic stop if the officer has a reasonable suspicion that the driver poses a threat to officer’s safety.  

An exit order is a minimally intrusive intrusion on the driver’s liberty, and is justified by the need to protect the officer from harm. The court also emphasized that an exit order must be based on specific and articulable facts that create a reasonable suspicion of danger, and must be narrowly tailored to the circumstances of the stop.

An exit order is not constitutionally justified based solely on a traffic violation. See Commonwealth v. Amado, 474 Mass. 147, 151 (2016). Thus, to be lawful, the exit order can only be justified based on events or observations made by the officers after they stopped the defendant’s vehicle.

Where a vehicle has been stopped for an observed traffic violation, an exit order issued to a driver or passenger of the vehicle is justified if (1) police are warranted in the belief that the safety of the officers or others is threatened; (2) police have reasonable suspicion of criminal activity; or (3) police are conducting a search of the vehicle on other grounds.

In determining whether an exit order was justified based upon safety concerns, the court asks whether a reasonably prudent person in the officer’s position would be warranted in the belief that the safety of the police or that of other persons was in danger.  

In determining whether an exit order is justified based on reasonable suspicion of criminal conduct which developed after stopping the defendant, factors based on the defendant’s behavior after the stop or what the police observes may provide the requisite suspicion of unlawful activity to justify an exit order on that basis.  See Commonwealth v Barreto 483 Mass. 716 (2019)