TexasCHLforum.com

1) Car stopped, engine off (so the officer knows that I'm not going anywhere).
2) Window down immediately (so the officer doesn't wonder what you're doing lowering it as he/she walks up to my vehicle).
3) Don't touch the dome light, that's an unnecessary movement and the dome light is unnecessary because if it is night, the "take down" lights will be light enough.
4) Don't reach for the wallet, that's an unnecessary movement that could be mistaken for something else and you don't yet know you need it.
5) Hands on the wheel at 10 & 2.
6) When the officer gets to the vehicle, say hello and then state that you have a CHL and a weapon in the vehicle, and ask the officer how he/she would like you to proceed.
7) Follow the directions that will follow.

I've been driving for more than 40 years and never been stopped much less a ticket. But the above is directly as it came from my CHL class here, and was the same in my CHP elsewhere, and the same that I was told in both a Citizen's Police Academy and the FBI Citizen's Academy. That advice was given after the class being told that most LEO are taught to trail their hand up the side of your vehicle upon approach - as that will leave DNA on the vehicle. And that's how nervous they are about traffic stops and that a significant percentage of the population will have a weapon in the vehicle. I would like to do my part to make them less nervous.