NY: Police can’t query for guns without RS there might be one

During a traffic or pedestrian stop, an officer in New York must have reasonable suspicion to ask about whether a weapon is possessed. Officers already have the power to order occupants out of a car. People v. Garcia, 2012 NY Slip Op 08670, 20 N.Y.3d 317, 983 N.E.2d 259, 959 N.Y.S.2d 464 (2012):

… Moreover, the rule of Mimms and Robinson already guards against the unique danger of a partially concealed automobile occupant by allowing the officer to order occupants out of a car and readily observe their movements. Indeed, Mimms and Robinson place automobile occupants in the same position as pedestrians vis-à-vis police officers; the People’s proposed rule, on the other hand, would create disparate degrees of constitutional protections based on an individual’s mode of transport. Finally, by sanctioning, in the interest of safety, a suspicionless inquiry into whether the ocupants of a stopped vehicle have a weapon, we may open the door to less precise inquiries with potential to raise significant privacy concerns. We decline to introduce uncertainty into this area of the law when it is not necessary to do so. Whether the individual questioned is a pedestrian or an occupant of a vehicle, a police officer who asks a private citizen if he or she is in possession of a weapon must have founded suspicion that criminality is afoot.

See Court Limits Questioning of Motorists by the Police in the NYT.