¶1[EDITORS' NOTE: THIS PAGE CONTAINS HEADNOTES. HEADNOTES ARE NOT AN OFFICIAL PRODUCT OF THE COURT, THEREFORE THEY ARE NOT DISPLAYED.] *592
¶2¶ 1 This case concerns the standard for determining the reasonableness of a protective frisk ("Terry frisk") for weapons. At trial, the defendant, Eric Jarvis Warren, filed a motion to suppress evidence obtained in a Terry frisk performed during a routine traffic stop. Although the officer who performed the frisk testified that he had no reason to believe Warren was armed and dangerous, the trial court denied the motion, finding that a reasonable person facing the same circumstances could objectively conclude that Warren was armed and dangerous. On appeal, the court of appeals reversed the trial court's decision, relying on the officer's lack of subjective belief and finding the frisk to be objectively unreasonable. We affirm the decision of the court of appeals, but clarify that an objective standard must be applied to determine the reasonableness of a Terry frisk under the totality of the circumstances. The officer's subjective belief may nevertheless be factored into the objective analysis, though it is never alone determinative. Likewise, we clarify that all traffic stops are inherently dangerous, a fact that should also be included in the totality of the circumstances analysis. However, any reduction in this danger resulting from ordering the person out of the vehicle before performing the frisk should also be factored into the analysis. Based on an objective evaluation of the totality of the circumstances present in this case, we conclude that the Terry frisk in question violated Warren's Fourth Amendment rights.
¶4 ¶ 3 At approximately 4:45 a.m. on November 28, 1999, Officer Swensen observed an unidentified male leaning into an open passenger door of a parked car near the intersection of 200 So. and 200 East in downtown Salt Lake City. Warren was seated in the driver's seat. Officer Swensen turned his vehicle around and stopped at the intersection to investigate. He did not recognize the car or know either Warren or the person leaning into the vehicle. He was also unable to tell what they were doing or hear their conversation. Officer Swensen suspected drug activity or prostitution based on the hour of the day and the deserted downtown location.1 After watching the proceedings for less than a minute, Officer Swensen observed the person who was leaning into the passenger door shut the door and leave on foot.
¶5 ¶ 4 Warren pulled away from the curb and turned left at the intersection without signaling and then made a lane change without signaling. Officer Swensen pulled Warren's car over for failure to signal. He asked Warren for his driver's license, vehicle registration, and proof of insurance. Warren provided the vehicle registration and a driver's license that had expired in 1995, claiming that he had a current license but that it had been stolen. Officer Swensen then asked Warren several questions regarding his activities with the man leaning into the car. Warren responded that he had just dropped off a friend and was looking for boxes to help *593 his sister move. These additional questions extended the stop approximately a minute or two.
¶6 ¶ 5 Officer Swensen returned to his police car to check the status of Warren's license. The search revealed that Warren did have a license that was valid until 2001, but that it was now invalid because of unpaid reinstatement fees. Officer Swensen decided to impound the vehicle and asked Warren to step out of his vehicle and over to the patrol car to sign the citation for failure to signal and for driving without a valid license. Officer Swensen testified that he did not intend to arrest Warren and that Warren would have been free to go after signing the citation.
¶7 ¶ 6 After Warren exited the vehicle, Officer Swensen asked him if he had any weapons. Warren responded that he did not. Officer Swensen testified that he did not have any reason to believe that Warren was armed. He also testified that Warren did not do anything that caused him any concern. Nevertheless, Officer Swensen decided to perform a Terry frisk for weapons. He testified that to promote the safety of officers and others, he performs a Terry frisk as a matter of routine on anyone he orders out of a vehicle. Officer Swensen also testified that people involved in drug activity or prostitution are more likely to carry weapons.
¶8 ¶ 7 During the frisk, a small white twist, later identified as cocaine, fell from underneath Warren's sweatshirt. Believing the twist to contain a controlled substance, Officer Swensen placed Warren under arrest. A more thorough search of Warren's person incident to his arrest revealed additional controlled substances and drug paraphernalia. A search of Warren's vehicle also revealed drug paraphernalia, as well as a knife concealed under the armrest of the front seat.
¶10 ¶ 9 Warren entered a conditional guilty plea to the cocaine charge, while retaining the right to appeal the denial of his motion to suppress evidence. Upon the entry of this plea, the State, as agreed, dropped all other charges. On appeal, the court of appeals reversed the denial of the motion to suppress, holding that the frisk was unlawful because Officer Swensen "did not believe, and had no basis on which to reasonably conclude, that Warren might be armed" and dangerous. State v.Warren, 2001 UT App 346, ¶ 22, 37 P.3d 270. The court also held that the State failed to meet its burden of establishing the inevitable discovery of the evidence. Id. Having concluded that the frisk was unlawful, the court did not address whether Officer Swensen's additional questioning impermissibly extended the scope of the stop. Id. at ¶ 16 n. 5.
¶11 ¶ 10 The State petitioned for certiorari review, which we granted on April 10, 2002. We have jurisdiction to hear this case pursuant to Utah Code Ann. § 78-2-2(3)(a) (2002).
¶14 ¶ 14 The reasonableness of both the stop and the frisk are evaluated objectively according to the totality of the circumstances.Terry, 392 U.S. at 21. To determine reasonableness, a court should question whether "the facts available to the officer at the moment of the seizure or the search `warrant a man of reasonable caution in the belief' that the action taken was appropriate." Id. at 21-22 (citations omitted). The Terry court proclaimed that the officer must be able to point to specific facts which, considered with rational inferences from those facts, reasonably warrant the intrusion. Id. at 21. In determining reasonableness, "due weight must be given, not to [an officer's] inchoate and unparticularized suspicion or `hunch,' but to specific reasonable inferences which [an officer] is entitled to draw from the facts in light of his experience." Id. at 27. The Court later explained that this process allows officers to draw upon their own experience and training to make determinations based on the cumulative facts before them that may elude an untrained person. United States v. Arvizu, 534 U.S. 266, 273 (2002). Courts must view the articulable facts in their totality and avoid the temptation to divide the facts and evaluate them in isolation from each other. Id. at 274 (holding that Terry precludes a divide and conquer analysis).
¶171. Majority View
¶18 ¶ 17 The majority of jurisdictions that have addressed the issue of an officer's lack of subjective belief have upheld a Terry frisk or aTerry stop as long as the Terry frisk or stop was objectively reasonable. United States v. Holt, 264 F.3d 1215, 1225 (10th Cir. 2001) (per curiam) (explaining that subjective intentions rarely play a role in a Fourth Amendment analysis and that courts instead rely on an objective view of the circumstances); United States v. Brown, 232 F.3d 589, 594 (7th Cir. 2000) (holding that courts are not limited to the officer's subjective rationale); United States v. Michelletti, 13 F.3d 838, 842 (5th Cir. 1994) (approving a Terry frisk under an objective standard, notwithstanding the fact that the officer stated he had no specific reason to believe the defendant was armed); United States v. McKie,951 F.2d 399, 402 (D.C. Cir. 1991) (per curiam) (holding that the court is not limited by subjective rationale, but determines reasonableness objectively); United States v. Cummins, 920 F.2d 498, 502 (8th Cir. 1990) (finding a Terry search objectively reasonable, notwithstanding the officer's lack of subjective belief that the defendants were armed and dangerous).
¶192. Minority View
¶20 ¶ 18 On the other hand, a minority of jurisdictions evaluate aTerry frisk according to the officer's subjective belief. United Statesv. Lott, 870 F.2d 778, 783-84 (1st Cir. 1989) ("[W]e do not read [Terry and Long] as permitting a frisk where, although the circumstances might pass an objective test, the officers in the field were not actually concerned for their safety."); United States v. Prim, 698 F.2d 972, 975 (9th Cir. 1983) (holding that an objective standard is applied to the officer's actual or perceived belief).
¶21 ¶ 19 We concur with the majority of jurisdictions in holding that the reasonableness *596 of a Terry frisk must be evaluated objectively. Furthermore, an officer's lack of subjective belief alone does not invalidate an otherwise objectively reasonable Terry frisk. We do not, however, go so far as to hold that an officer's subjective belief plays no role in the analysis.
¶23 ¶ 21 The totality of the circumstances analysis objectively evaluates all facts before the officer at the time the officer made the decision. The officer, with experience and training, is in the best position to evaluate the circumstances and determine the reasonableness of a Terry frisk. We recognize that some officers may never admit that they feared for their safety. Holt, 264 F.3d at 1225-26. Likewise, other officers may always claim they believed a stop was dangerous in order to justify a frisk. Nevertheless, an officer's own evaluation of the circumstances may provide valuable insight to factor into the objective analysis. How much weight this factor is given is a determination for the individual court, though a Terry frisk cannot be validated or invalidated based solely on a subjective belief because no one factor alone is determinative of reasonableness. Carter, 707 P.2d at 659. An officer's determination that a person may be armed and dangerous, like an officer's subjective interpretation of the facts to determine that a crime has been or is being committed, is one of several possible articulable facts a court may consider as part of the totality of the circumstances.
¶26 ¶ 24 Due to this inherent dangerousness, courts allow officers to take certain precautions to protect themselves without having to justify their actions based on reasonable suspicion. The United States Supreme Court in Pennsylvania v. Mimms held that once a motor vehicle has been lawfully detained for a traffic violation, police officers may order the driver out of the vehicle to promote safety, even in the absence of reasonable suspicion, without violating the Fourth Amendment's proscription against unreasonable searches and seizures. 434 U.S. 106,108-111 (1977). The Court later clarified that this same rationale also allows officers to order passengers out of the vehicle. Maryland v.Wilson, 519 U.S. 408, 410 (1997). Officers can also run background checks pursuant to a traffic stop in order to increase officer safety. Holt,264 F.3d at 1221. Officer safety is so important that all federal and most state courts allow these actions even in the absence of any specific safety concern.4
¶27 ¶ 25 Although society's interest in promoting officer safety is great, that interest must be weighed against society's interest in protecting individual liberty. The reasonableness of a Terry frisk depends "on a balance between the public interest and the individual's right to personal security free from arbitrary interference by law officers."United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 878 (1975) (citation omitted). Balancing these interests, courts have held that slight intrusions such as ordering a person out of a car or conducting background checks pursuant to a traffic stop are justifiable intrusions in order to allow officers to operate in safety. See Mimms,434 U.S. at 111; Wilson, 519 U.S. at 410; Holt, 264 F.3d at 1221. A Terry frisk is an intrusion of a greater magnitude. As the Court noted in Terry, a Terry frisk "may inflict great indignity and arouse strong resentment, and it is not to be undertaken lightly." Terry, 392 U.S. at 17. Hence, we expressly note that the State has not argued, and we do not hold, that the inherent dangerousness of traffic stops alone justifies a Terry frisk. However, we agree with the State that the inherent dangerousness of all traffic stops is a factor that should be considered under the totality of the circumstances analysis.
¶29 ¶ 27 It stands to reason, therefore, that if a person is ordered out of a vehicle, some or all of the inherent dangerousness of a traffic stop may be mitigated. To perform a Terry frisk, an officer must order the occupants from the vehicle. As the United States Supreme Court explained, "[e]stablishing a face-to-face confrontation diminishes the possibility, otherwise substantial, that the driver can make unobserved movements; this, in turn, reduces the likelihood that the officer will be the victim of an assault." Mimms, 434 U.S. at 110. In extending *598 Mimms to passengers, the Court later explained, "[o]utside the car, the passengers will be denied access to any possible weapon that might be concealed in the interior of the passenger compartment." Wilson, 519 U.S. at 414. In simple traffic stops where other indicia of dangerousness are absent, ordering the occupants of the vehicle out of the car clearly mitigates the inherent dangerousness of the stop.
¶30 ¶ 28 This is not to say that officers must always order occupants out of a vehicle to minimize danger to themselves or others or that officers must adopt alternative means to increase their safety in order to avoid the intrusions involved in a Terry encounter. Long,463 U.S. at 1052. Nor do we believe that ordering occupants out of a vehicle during a traffic stop will necessarily eliminate all danger. As the Supreme Court has also noted, a suspect may still gain access to a vehicle even after the officer orders the suspect out of the vehicle. Id. at 1051-52. Thus, while we recognize that the inherent dangerousness of traffic stops may be mitigated by ordering the occupants out of the vehicle, we also note that some danger related to potential access to the vehicle may remain.
¶31 ¶ 29 Because ordering the occupants out of the vehicle may remove or substantially reduce the inherent dangerousness of a traffic stop, both the inherent dangerousness of a traffic stop and any decrease in danger from ordering a suspect from a vehicle are factors that should be considered under the totality of the circumstances. We reiterate that even when not mitigated, the inherent dangerousness of a traffic stop alone is not determinative. The officer must still meet the requirements of Terry by pointing to "`specific and articulable facts which, taken together with the rational inferences from those facts,'" would lead a reasonable person to conclude that the suspect may be armed and presently dangerous. Long, 463 U.S. at 1049 (quoting Terry, 392 U.S. at 21).
¶33 ¶ 31 "The touchstone of our analysis under the Fourth Amendment is always `the reasonableness in all the circumstances of the particular governmental invasion of a citizen's personal security.'" Pennsylvaniav. Mimms, 434 U.S. 106, 108-09 (1977) (quoting Terry, 392 U.S. at 19). Reasonableness depends "on a balance between the public interest and the individual's right to personal security free from arbitrary interference by law officers." United States v. Brignoni-Ponce, 422 U.S. 873, 878 (1975) (citation omitted). Courts consistently eschew bright-line rules and "instead emphasiz[e] the fact-specific nature of the reasonableness inquiry." Ohio v. Robinette, 519 U.S. 33, 39 (1996).
¶34 ¶ 32 Here, the court of appeals stated that lesser traffic offenses are not suggestive of weapons and that neither the lateness of the hour nor Warren's lie regarding his license was suggestive of weapons. There are, however, several other articulable facts on both sides of the scale that the court should have weighed in determining reasonableness. On the one hand, the reasonableness of the Terry frisk is supported by the inherent dangerousness of a traffic stop, the lateness of the hour, the deserted downtown location, the lie *599 by Warren regarding the status of his license, the need to impound Warren's car, and Officer Swensen's suspicion that Warren was involved in drug activity or prostitution. On the other hand, a number of factors weigh against the reasonableness of the Terry frisk, including Warren's cooperative behavior, his response that he did not have any weapons on him, his willing compliance with the order to exit his vehicle, and Officer Swensen's testimony that Warren did nothing to cause Officer Swensen to be alarmed and that he had no reason to believe that Warren was armed and dangerous.
¶35 ¶ 33 Clearly, this case lacks the kind of obvious articulable facts that would make the determination easier, such as a bulge in a pocket, a sudden lunge, or loud and boisterous behavior.5 However, we conclude that the factors supporting the reasonableness of the frisk are insufficient in this case. In particular, we note that Officer Swensen's suspicions of drug activity or prostitution are better classified as hunches, rather than reasonable inferences, especially in light of the fact that he did not consider them sufficient, standing alone, to warrant investigation. Instead, he waited until Warren committed traffic violations to justify the stop. In Terry, the Court stated that credence must not be given to hunches, but to specific reasonable inferences an officer is entitled to draw from the facts in light of his or her experience. 392 U.S. at 27. While respecting an officer's entitlement to draw upon his or her experience, the facts leading to Officer Swensen's suspicion are too attenuated to justify the inference. Similarly, Warren's cooperativeness, denial of being armed, and the absence of alarming actions further negate the reasonableness argument. In addition, Officer Swensen was present and observed all the factors, but testified repeatedly that he did not have any reason to believe that Warren was armed and dangerous. Finally, Officer Swensen's removal of Warren from the vehicle decreased the inherent dangerousness of the traffic stop. After weighing all of the articulable facts, we conclude that the officer's safety concerns in this case were not sufficient to outweigh Warren's right to personal security.
¶37 ¶ 35 The court of appeals' decision is affirmed.
¶38 ¶ 36 Chief Justice Durham, Justice Wilkins, Justice Parrish, and Justice Nehring concur in Associate Chief Justice Durrant's opinion.