Myth or Misunderstanding?

[Matt Landfair]

I was taught in the late 90s, on a traffic stop on your initial approach to the vehicle you touch the trunk or rear hatch to ensure it is secure to stop an ambush involving trunk monkeys. Common practice at the time (and still) was callout location and violator plate number with short description on the radio while the dashcam is recording it all.

Fast forward 15 years and I was told this practice was to put a fingerprint on the vehicle so it can be identified if you are shot during the stop and the vehicle leaves.

Anyone have a source where the latter was explained? It seems rather silly to me since we already record everything both on video and through the radio. It seems like someone provided what they thought was occurring without any frame of reference.

 

[Hush]

I was instructed the same, push down or pull up to ensure trunk was closed. About a decade later I started hearing about "printing taillights" or leaving DNA...never made sense to me but never heard the origin.

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[Seth Thompson]

The whole thing is an old cop myth/bad instructor thing. No one who's ever taught it in my presence has been able to document either of the hypothetical reasons given as ever happening.

I've heard both explanations from various sources, along with a third explanation that it's to "get your mind right" and focus yourself on the final approach.

Regarding the trunk explanation, it's of limited utility, as it should also be noted that most vehicles with conventional trunks have a NHTSA-mandated emergency interior release on the inside, from about 2007, so your trunk ninjas can let themselves out.

As for the fingerprint/DNA thing, I agree it sounds like rationalization after the fact. No one has ever steered me to an example where a suspect got away from a cop and was later tied to the stop by this. For what it's worth, I was being given the fingerprint explanation as early as 1994 or so, but then again, I was also being told stories of shootouts where officers died with brass in their hand, too.

 

[Seth Thompson]

You know, police and training myths and the debunking of them might be a good topic for a podcast or something...

 

[pointblank4445]

You know, police and training myths and the debunking of them might be a good topic for a podcast or something...

You could do multiple.
I could probably fill 3 hours from just basic academy firearms training alone

 

[Wil]

We have always taught to push down on the trunk. Somewhere in the late 90's, they added printing the bottom, drivers side of the rear window. And as stated above, no one can give me anything other than anecdotal evidence as to why the actual F we do so.

 

[TheBigDog65]

The rationale for press checking the trunk as explained to me in field training circa 1982 was thwarting the 'trunk monkey attack'. Heard it again in a couple of different officer safety in service classes over the years. I recall hearing the fingerprint thing in a refresher in the early 2000s, and I recall thinking it was bullshit at the time.

The tactic is found on pages 80-82, with illustrations, in the original editions of Street Survival (yes I still have a copy on my book shelf) and the illustration shows a Riverside PD officer doing it, so I assume the tactic came out of Southern California (I was a NorCal guy). That, I suspect, is the genesis although there is no context given in the book.

Of course, the book also shows the tactic in conjunction with making the approach to the violator with sidearm drawn and held behind the leg.... something we all should have stopped doing years ago.

 

[Carrion]

As soon as this was taught to me it seemed odd. Once in an FTO capacity, I would explain the reasoning for doing so and would let the trainees make a decision based on that. Most would agree there wasnt a need to do the fingerprint/push down thing and also agreed it was more of an officer safety issue to do so.

 

[dont_tread_on_me]

I was told you are putting fingerprints on the car that could later link it to a potential crime, to wit, your death. No knowing more about latent fingerprints that seems spurious.

 

[dont_tread_on_me]

Missed the edit window:

Later I learned a tactic where you use it as an opportunity to turn your hips parallel to the vehicle. In the event of an assault, it would be much easier to move “off the x” because your hips are already oriented in a way to facilitate that versus having to pirouette or run forward when most people would retreat to their vehicle for cover. I think this is sound logic.

 

[Seth Thompson]

Missed the edit window:

Later I learned a tactic where you use it as an opportunity to turn your hips parallel to the vehicle. In the event of an assault, it would be much easier to move “off the x” because your hips are already oriented in a way to facilitate that versus having to pirouette or run forward when most people would retreat to their vehicle for cover. I think this is sound logic.

That's a new one I hadn't heard yet.

That makes four possible reasons for the trunk "press-check"...

 

[jlw]

I was "taught" to do it for both reasons, but I don't know of a single documented case where it was ever used to identify a vehicle.

 

[Carrion]

“ Alright gents…. The suspect vehicle got away and the deputy didn’t call out the tag like he was supposed to. So you have all been tasked with dusting every red Honda Civic in Florida….disregard the rain….”

**UNLIKELY****

 

[Seth Thompson]

“ Alright gents…. The suspect vehicle got away and the deputy didn’t call out the tag like he was supposed to. So you have all been tasked with dusting every red Honda Civic in Florida….disregard the rain….”

**UNLIKELY****

"...and, his vehicle camera didn't work, and his bodycam was off, and no one on the entire route of travel had a security or doorbell camera that worked. Good luck, we're all counting on ya!"

 

[Hush]

"...and, his vehicle camera didn't work, and his bodycam was off, and no one on the entire route of travel had a security or doorbell camera that worked. Good luck, we're all counting on ya!"

In that case it sounds like Jeffrey Epstein was driving the Civic.

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[jlw]

"...and, his vehicle camera didn't work, and his bodycam was off, and no one on the entire route of travel had a security or doorbell camera that worked. Good luck, we're all counting on ya!"

Some of us have been working since before body cams and doorbell security cameras where a thing.

When I started, we had dash cams that were wired to a VCR in a lockbox in the trunk. It was not uncommon for the action on a stop to not be in the camera’s view.

We ended up pulling the camera systems because they failed so often that defense attorneys were accusing us of convenient failures.

 

[Seth Thompson]

Some of us have been working since before body cams and doorbell security cameras where a thing.

When I started, we had dash cams that were wired to a VCR in a lockbox in the trunk. It was not uncommon for the action on a stop to not be in the camera’s view.

We ended up pulling the camera systems because they failed so often that defense attorneys were accusing us of convenient failures.

When I started, we had...NOTHING!

Some of the high-rollers had purchased micro-cassette sound recorders for their shirt pockets. Those and Polaroid cameras were the extent of our high-tech documentation equipment. Eventually, we got car cameras: Hi-8 Handicams on dashboard brackets. The brackets wobbled and shimmied and rattled, causing lots of duct-tape and bungee cord setups to restrain them. However, you could dismount them and use them as a handheld to do walk-throughs of crime scenes or big accidents. High tech, I tell ya!

 

[Carrion]

"...and, his vehicle camera didn't work, and his bodycam was off, and no one on the entire route of travel had a security or doorbell camera that worked. Good luck, we're all counting on ya!"

.this scenario....this exact scenario.... is normal for us.....

 

[Carrion]

When I started, we had...NOTHING!

Some of the high-rollers had purchased micro-cassette sound recorders for their shirt pockets. Those and Polaroid cameras were the extent of our high-tech documentation equipment. Eventually, we got car cameras: Hi-8 Handicams on dashboard brackets. The brackets wobbled and shimmied and rattled, causing lots of duct-tape and bungee cord setups to restrain them. However, you could dismount them and use them as a handheld to do walk-throughs of crime scenes or big accidents. High tech, I tell ya!

Lemme guess, next youre gonna tell us how you didn't have a radio but a pager that would let you know to walk to the nearest payphone to call dispatch.

Never happened.

 

[Seth Thompson]

Pagers? Nah. Those cost too much money.

We actually had decent high-band VHF car radios and handhelds. We did use payphones to call dispatch if we needed more information, or we needed to talk about something that "Scannerland" didn't need to know.