After a quick search, you find that cops have been “tail light tapping” for years!
And its practice aids police officers because there is always a potential risk of danger.
Body cams, dash cams, and other surveillance techniques give the officer insight into who you are, but tail tapping was the “oldschool” method before these.
Some officers may still tap your tail as well as wear a camera to get real-time information about who they’re pulling over.
Police officers always need to assess situations quickly as they approach a vehicle.
And a tail light tap can tell the police officer information about the driver that they just pulled over.
When the officer taps on the tail light they consider several situations.
How does the driver react? Did they get startled? Or were they distracted by something else? Is the driver under the influence? Or hiding a weapon?
So if the driver is handling illegal items like controlled substances, ammunition, or guns, their reaction to the officer’s tail light tap will tell the officer if the driver is trying to hide anything.
It’s a proven method!
While a driver might think that they have a few moments to clean up their car, the officer is already watching.
So don’t suddenly scramble, because someone is always paying attention.
This tactic has proven to be particularly effective.
It has led to an increase in the arrest of intoxicated drivers, an increase in the arrest of sellers of prohibited substances, and an increase in the arrest of people found in possession of unlicensed firearms.
This practice has proven effective in catching suspicious drivers off guard.
But there’s an even more important reason officers touch your tail light, and it has to do with protecting themselves.
Another reason an officer taps a tail light is to leave their fingerprints on the car.
This is helpful in extreme circumstances where the officer could find themselves in a dangerous situation, or they never make it back to the station after their shift.
Let’s say an officer pulled someone over and had just tapped the driver’s tail light. However, this driver was dangerous; and it led to an accident with the officer now in a hospital.
Luckily, since the fingerprints were left on the car, the police have evidence that this was the car at the scene of a criminal investigation.
However, this fingerprint tactic is not a sure-fire way to gather evidence.
Unfortunately, there is always the possibility that the fingerprints were tampered with or smudged; or washed away by rain or snow.
If a police officer believes that they are in a dangerous situation when they pull someone over, they will also touch the trunk to ensure it is latched.
This is to ensure that no one is hiding or going to hop out of the trunk to harm the officer.
While one officer checks to ensure the trunk is locked, their partner will typically come up and talk to the driver.
This will ensure a dangerous driver does not grab a weapon or get away while the other officer checks the trunk.
Of course, the practice of tail light tapping was more vital before technology brought us the dash cam.
Although many police officers are still instructed to tap drivers’ tail lights, they also have dash-cams (and sometimes police body cams) to record every interaction.
As it turns out, tail light tapping is not just about catching the driver off guard, but also an important safety practice for police officers.
It might just be the oldest trick in the book.
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