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I've been wondering this for some time now and never really had any place to ask. This forum is such a wealth of information. Maybe someone here knows why. Maybe the answer is too obvious for me to see.

In the "old" days, when I got stopped, I would get out of the car and walk back to meet the officer, usually about half way between. We would talk about whatever he stopped me for, he would take my license, go back to his car, run it, then come back and either give me a pass, a warning or a ticket. All the while I am standing there in the full glare of his lights, essentially blinded while he held all the tactical advantage.

The last few times I have been stopped, over the last few years, the officer seems to become distinctly upset that I am out of the car as he pulls to a stop. I am just standing there, by my door. "Get back in the car! Get back in the car NOW!". Last time was at night in a suburb near McKinney. You would have thought I was John Dillenger.

So what's the deal? My thinking is, if am an LEO approaching some guy I know nothing about, I would really prefer him to be standing out in the open, in the glare of my headlights where I can see his hands and where there are no little hiddy places for him to jerk something out of just as I reach the door. But this does not appear to be the case. I can see some psychological advantage maybe to him standing and me sitting in a confined area, but durn, he is walking up to a dark car with no idea what he has just stopped, who is in the car, or what's waiting for him as he steps up to my window. (Jeeze, that must take a lot of guts!)

I don't get it, why do LEOs get so uptight if you want to step out and meet them in the open? Why wouldn't he want me out in the open, in the light? What am I missing?

Thanks,

Robert