It’s been six long and often difficult years since her son, Michael McCloskey, was shot by an Ottawa Hills police officer and paralyzed during a traffic stop, but Darlene Thorn is determined to see something good come out of the senseless tragedy.

Several months back, Mrs. Thorn flipped on the noon news and heard about a presentation in downtown Toledo on what to do when you’re stopped by police. She showed up for the event a few hours later and hasn’t been able to get it out of her mind.

Law enforcement and legal experts on the panel explained a simple rule of thumb: pull over in a safe spot, turn off the car, turn on the dome light, open the window, and place your hands on the steering wheel.

“Who knew this? That you’re to keep your hands on the wheel at all times in plain view?” she said. “I didn’t know this.”

Everyone she has spoken to since said they typically follow their first instinct. They pull over and immediately reach for their registration and proof of insurance in the glove box and retrieve their driver’s license from their purse.

“And what’s a man going to do? What’s your son going to do? He’s going to take his hand and go like this,” she said, reaching behind her for a wallet in a back pocket.

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Hands on the wheel. Wait for the officer.

Earl Mack, president of the Toledo Buffalo Soldiers Motorcycle Club and a retired law enforcement officer, said his group’s message at the presentations such as the one Mrs. Thorn attended boils down to four words: comply now, complain later.

“It’s a program that encourages dialogue between police and community,” he said. “The message is to comply first. If there are any problems, you can complain later because you are going to lose on the street.”

In the wake of recent police shootings in several U.S. cities, Mr. Mack said the Buffalo Soldiers resurrected the workshop focused on what to do when you encounter police. They’ve taken it to high schools, community centers, and churches around northwest Ohio.

At the high school presentations, he said, students role-play police making a stop and citizens in a car. In the first scenario, the students in the car are argumentative and challenge the officer. Mr. Mack said the students portraying the police typically become so frustrated, one student officer asked, “Can I just yank her out of the car?”

“Students will tell us it’s frustrating, and that is the exact feeling we want the kids to get,” Mr. Mack said.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Ohio makes similar statewide presentations, speaking on what to do in police encounters as well as explaining people’s legal rights.

Spokesman Gary Daniels said the ACLU also tries to get people to see the situation from the officer’s perspective. Police may view any sudden movements, even reaching for your driver’s license, as a threat.

“We tell people if you’re going to reach into your coat to the inside pocket to get your ID, let the officer know what you’re doing. ‘I’m going to reach into my pocket. That’s where I keep my wallet. I’m going to reach into my purse …’ because as we can see sometimes these horrible things happen in encounters with the police,” he said.

It’s a message police are just as eager to convey to citizens, said Dan Wagner, president of the Toledo Police Patrolman’s Association.

“We’re taught in the academy in every scenario that the person you have just stopped is trying to kill you, and that’s to get you in the mind frame that you’re always prepared, so you’re not just walking nonchalantly up to a traffic stop,” he said, explaining that once an officer establishes communication with a motorist and sees their hands, the officer can relax his demeanor accordingly.

“People have to understand where we’re coming from,” Mr. Wagner said.

In Mr. McCloskey’s case, Thomas White, who at the time was a part-time police officer in Ottawa Hills, pulled over Mr. McCloskey’s motorcycle and shot him in the back after he said Mr. McCloskey made a reaching movement that implied to him that he was going to draw a weapon. Mr. McCloskey was unarmed.

Mr. White was tried and convicted of felonious assault with a firearm specification in 2010, but his conviction was overturned on appeal. The Ohio Supreme Court agreed that a police officer acting in the line of duty could not be prosecuted for a firearm specification and sent the case back to Lucas County Common Pleas Court for a new trial on the felonious assault charge.

The case is on hold because prosecutors have asked the U.S. Supreme Court to review it.

Mrs. Thorn declined to comment on the case and insisted her campaign to educate the public about what to do when stopped by police is not about her son, who is now 30.

“It has nothing to do with what transpired that night, and I want to make that very clear, that this has nothing to reflect on Michael’s case whatsoever,” she said. “All we’re trying to do is make everyone else aware. Something good has got to come out of something so horrible.”

“We’ve been blessed that he lived, and if we can help other families to maybe teach their children, their parents, themselves, if we can help other families,” she said, struggling for words. “The rules have changed.”

To arrange for presentations by the Toledo Buffalo Soldiers, go to toledobuffalosoldiers.com, or contact the ACLU of Ohio at acluohio.org/​resources/​request-a-speaker.

Contact Jennifer Feehan at: jfeehan@theblade.com or 419-213-2134.

First Published June 8, 2015, 4:00 a.m.