Traffic-stop tips for teens
Plain City police teach class to help young drivers behave wisely
PLAIN CITY — Cole Breneman didn’t expect to be pulled over by police. He is only 14, after all.
Yet there Cole was in his car (actually, a plastic chair) “driving” down a Madison County country road (actually, a Plain City Elementary School cafeteria aisle), and the next thing he knew, Plain City police detective Philip Greenbaum was alongside and asking for his driver’s license and registration. Cole was informed that he had been speeding.
He already had been told during the recent, 90-minute “New Behind The Wheel” driver-education course that, when pulled over, he should immediately turn on his vehicle’s dome light because it was dark outside, not reach for anything until the officer told him to, and be polite and respectful.
Cole handed an imaginary driver’s license to Greenbaum, one of the classes’ two instructors.
“Hey, that’s a pretty good photo,” Greenbaum said while staring at his empty hand. Cole and the other 35 teenagers in the room laughed, breaking the
tension on what had just been a heavy and serious discussion about civil rights, police procedures and what to do if you feel scared, threatened or in danger while out driving.
Cole, who has a countdown clock on his phone showing that he can get his driver’s permit in just under a year, said he was glad that his mother had signed him up for the class.
“It was interesting,” said Cole, a home-school student from Marysville.
The class held earlier this month was the second one offered by the police department in this village that straddles the Madison-union county line. It all started a couple of years ago when a parent called to ask why law enforcement couldn’t teach young drivers what to do — and what not to do — if pulled over.
“We talked about it and decided that we could,” said Lt. Tom Jaskiewicz. “Then we expanded on the idea.”
The class is open to everyone, and the organizers hope to hold them at least annually.
Greenbaum and his coinstructor, longtime police Officer Gary Sigrist Jr., go over basics: distracted driving, the importance of making sure that a vehicle is safe to drive, how to properly navigate around slow-moving vehicles, and when the law requires drivers to stop for school buses.
But they also talk about whether an officer is allowed to ask passengers for identification (passengers must provide name, date of birth and address upon request); whether a car can be searched without a warrant (in some instances, yes); whether patting down or frisking anyone in a vehicle is allowed (if an officer thinks a person could be armed); and whether taking video of a police officer who stops you is allowed. (Yes, but you cannot interfere with the officer’s work.)
A bill introduced in the Ohio Senate would require driver’s-education instructors to teach proper interaction with police.
Sigrist talked especially about how to behave when stopped, and that it is OK to be nervous but never disrespectful. He got the seriousness of the lesson across with his booming, authoritative voice as he walked the rows and approached the teens individually. But he tempered everything with humor that his young audience seemed to appreciate.
“An officer may say to you, ‘Your eyes look glassy. Have you been drinking? You reply, ‘Your eyes look kind of glazed. Have you been eating doughnuts?” Sigrist said to laughter. “These are the things you say if you want to get a ticket.”
In all seriousness, though, he told the group about what to do if you think you are being followed, when and how to call 911 (take a breath to calm yourself so that dispatchers can understand you), and how to not provoke other drivers.
Three friends — Hope Shoemaker, 15, and Olivia Mccoy and Morgan Hicks, both 16 — sat in the front row and hung on every word the two officers said.
Their mothers had signed them up, the three Jonathan Alder High School sophomores said, and each was glad for that.
“It was nice to interact with the officers and to hear what to do if you get stopped,” said Morgan, who got her license this year. “And they weren’t intimidating the way they taught us. I liked that.”