Editing Terry stop (section)

== Traffic stops ==
{{Further|Traffic stop}}[[File:New Jersey State Police Traffic Stop.jpg|thumb|[[New Jersey State Police]] officer conducting a [[traffic stop]] on the [[New Jersey Turnpike]]]]
For practical purposes, a traffic stop is essentially the same as a ''Terry'' stop; for the duration of a stop, driver and passengers are "seized" within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment. The Supreme Court has held that drivers and passengers may be ordered to exit the vehicle without violating the Fourth Amendment's proscription of unreasonable searches and seizures. Drivers and passengers may be frisked for weapons upon reasonable suspicion they are armed and dangerous. If police reasonably suspect the driver or any of the occupants may be dangerous and that the vehicle may contain a weapon to which an occupant may gain access, police may perform a protective search of the passenger compartment. Otherwise, lacking a warrant or the driver's consent, police may not search the vehicle, but under the [[plain view doctrine|plain-view doctrine]] may seize and use as evidence weapons or contraband that are visible from outside the vehicle.<ref name=samaha/>

As decided in ''[[Ohio v. Robinette]]'' (1996), after an officer returns the driver's identification, there is no requirement that the officer inform the driver of his or her freedom to leave; therefore, although the encounter has changed to a consensual encounter, questioning can continue, including a request to search the vehicle.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Dery |first=George M. III |date=1998 |title='When Will This Traffic Stop End?': The United States Supreme Court's Dodge of Every Detained Motorist's Central Concern—Ohio v. Robinette |url=https://ir.law.fsu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=https://www.google.com/&httpsredir=1&article=1411&context=lr |journal=Florida State University Law Review |volume=25 |issue=3}}</ref>