> Had he stayed in the truck and explained that he didn’t trust his park gear when the cop came up to the vehicle, it probably would have been a minor inconvenience... <
Agreed. But here’s the thing. Most civilians don’t have crisis training. They haven’t gone through multiple drills covering every possible situation.
So when a civilian is stopped by the police, there is no crisis training to kick in. Instead that person is confused and scared. And so it’s quite reasonable to expect him to make a stupid mistake.
Now, who does have that crisis training? It’s the police officer, of course. That’s why in a situation like this one, the officer must be held to a higher standard of conduct.
I haven’t had crisis training either but I know better than to exit a vehicle stopped by police at 3 am.
Do they teach “How to survive and live through a traffic stop by Law Enforcement” courses? Should they now? The bigger question is why should these even be needed. It should not be so... Something is broken...