A traffic stop has a beginning, a mission, and an endpoint

Preserve the alleged traffic offense, roadway, direction, lighting, traffic, weather, patrol-car location, dash-camera view, body-camera audio, dispatch statements. Include license-plate query, radar or lidar material, pacing record and citation. Compare the officer's first recorded reason with later reports and testimony. A generalized hunch is different from specific, articulable facts, while a supported traffic violation can justify a stop even if the officer also hopes to investigate another crime.

Identify every person seized. A driver and passengers can experience the same stop differently depending on commands, identification demands, movement, handcuffing, questioning, and release. Terry supplies the framework for a limited investigatory stop based on reasonable suspicion. An arrest or restraint equivalent to arrest generally requires greater justification. There is no responsible shortcut based only on elapsed minutes or whether handcuffs appeared.

Create a minute-by-minute chart for license, registration, insurance, warrants, citation writing, vehicle safety, ordinary questions, requests for backup. Include consent discussions, dog arrival and sniff, searches and release. Record why each pause occurred and whether officers were diligently pursuing traffic tasks. A dog sniff is not evaluated merely by whether it occurred before a citation was handed over; the disputed question may be whether it added time and what independent facts justified that extension.

If officers claim new reasonable suspicion, list each fact and when it became known. Nervousness, travel plans, criminal history, masking odor, rental status, inconsistent answers, and other observations require context rather than a checklist conclusion. Video can show the questions actually asked and whether the stated basis emerged before or after the decision to prolong the stop. Avoid rounding timestamps or assuming every camera clock matches.

Write the exact consent request and response, including whether the driver or owner had authority. Include whether a passenger's property was included, what scope officers described, whether consent was limited or withdrawn and whether coercive conditions affected voluntariness. If officers rely on probable cause, search incident to arrest, inventory, protective search, or another doctrine, identify its factual basis and the areas or containers searched.

Preserve property receipts, photographs, tow and inventory documents, drug-test and field-test records, phone seizure or extraction material. Include use-of-force records, medical care, booking and the criminal file. A civil claim should assign each action to the officer who caused it and distinguish direct injury from prosecution or property retention. Qualified immunity and any municipal claim require separate proof; a department's policy violation does not establish either element by itself.