What Are Your Rights During A Traffic Stop?
(CBS) -- The Sandra Bland case raises an old question once again: What are your rights and responsibilities during a traffic stop?
CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reviewed key points of the Bland dashboard video with two law enforcement experts.
From the start, the Texas trooper had questions for Sandra Bland, but was she required by law to answer?
"She could have easily said, 'I choose not to answer,'" said Ross Rice, CBS 2 Security Consultant and former FBI agent.
"Beyond providing your license and proof of insurance, you do not have to answer any other questions," said Ed Yohnka of the Illinois ACLU.
Their views on key points of the Bland traffic stop were largely the same, including the key flash point when the trooper asked her to put out her cigarette. Rice and Yohnka both said Bland did not have to comply.
"The demand that she put out the cigarette, feels like simply trying to enforce authority in that set of circumstances," said Yohnka.
Under the law, they both said Bland was required to get out.
"What he is doing in effect is a custodial situation," Rice said. "It's an arrest and yes, she had an obligation to exit the vehicle."
Later, off camera, there was another confrontation over Bland recording the troopers with her phone. Both Rice and Yohnka said Bland had a right to record.
"You have a constitutional right to record a police officer doing their public duty in a public place," Yohnka said.
Both experts said the trooper overreacted by threatening to drag brand out of the car, and by arresting her apparently for failing to put out a cigarette.
But both said the best policy during a traffic stop is to be unfailingly polite and comply with police requests. The best time to mount a challenge is later, through the legal system, not on the street.
For information on your rights during a traffic stop, visit the ACLU's website.