If a LEO asks you to remove your sunglasses during a stop, are you obligated to do so?
Edit: mods please change title to "Sunglasses during a stop". Thanks. Fat fingers on the phone...
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If a LEO asks you to remove your sunglasses during a stop, are you obligated to do so?
Edit: mods please change title to "Sunglasses during a stop". Thanks. Fat fingers on the phone...
I don't think so. Not under the normal circumstances of a routine stop, anyway.
If the officer suspects you're DUI and asks you to remove them for SFST maneuvers (so he can see your eyes for the HGN test) you can probably be considered to have refused the test if you don't remove sunglasses or even prescription glasses.
Related, but fm another point of view: There was a study done in the UK several years ago, about the psychological impact of the police wearing sunglasses when interacting with the populace. In a nutshell, the populace viewed the police in a hostile manner when the police wore sunglasses, specially mirrored. The glasses gave the police a hostile, untrustworthy, and unapproachable appearance. Inversely, they would/could do the same when the populace wears them during any interaction. IMO, when approached by a police officer wearing mirrored glasses, I think of them as wanna-be 'Boss Hawg' and do feel uncomfortable, and when I wear shades, I'll take them off when talking to someone, out of a basic courtesy.
My sunglasses are prescription- as in Crizal/photogreys (automatic tinting) so that would be my answer if they asked me to remove them...
"I can do that- but I won't be able to see well, Officer... they are prescription"
But I agree with Bailey that they'd have to be taken off for some DUI tests (follow the pen with your eyes only)
I wear sunglasses when it's sunny.
i may ask you to remove them for sfst maneuvers or to compare you to your id picture better.