Is It Proper to Place Someone in Jail for a Seatbelt ViolationJoin now to read essay Is It Proper to Place Someone in Jail for a Seatbelt ViolationStates across the nation have seat belt laws in place that make it a requirement for drivers and passengers in vehicles that are being operated on public streets to wear some sort of safety belt. In 1998, 41,471 people were killed in 6,334,000 reported motor vehicle accidents in the United States. Seat belts are estimated to save 9,500 lives each year, and statistics show a higher degree of seat-belt use in states that aggressively enforce seat belt laws. The laws, as well as the punishments available for violation of the laws vary by state. In most states, however, it is considered a misdemeanor and punishable by a small fine. The properness of an arrest for such violations is a good question and has been addressed by various courts including the Supreme Court.
The ACLU of Washington issued a report this year on the effectiveness of California’s seat belt law–its proponents say it may be the most effective, and would save lives in the event of a crash in Washington.
“Today’s report by the ACLU of Washington affirms the effectiveness and practicality of the American Academy of State and Local Law Enforcement’s (ASLLLA) pilot program to evaluate seat belt safety,” said the report’s senior legal counsel in the U.S. Attorney for Western District of Virginia, Jeff E. Wilcox. “Many cities and counties, particularly to Washington and Oakland, are now using the model that provides officers with a standard system of mandatory seat belts. In fact, at least one county has implemented a new law that, among other things, prevents the city’s police from wearing a badge. These policies are necessary to create a safe, secure driving environment, but others are not.”
”A federal agency, the US Department of Transportation, has found that seat belt deployment is ineffective in reducing drunk and driving deaths in a large number of cities and states. In the short term, the U.S. Department of Transportation finds that it has no other success than deploying police to cities and states where they are needed most, as they have in the past. This success is based largely on the ability of many of the states and localities in which the police officers currently patrol, according to the Department of Transportation. In addition to the safety improvements described above, a pilot program at American Academy of State and Local Law Enforcement with federal grant funding is being implemented to evaluate which cities and cities have adopted or could soon adopt such standards.–
An American Academy of State and Local Law Enforcement-sponsored pilot program (ANAL”), which is available exclusively to law enforcement officers,@lawenforcement, will take place on the first weekend of the week of May 17 through May 21 at the American University of Justice’s School of Law and Technology in Washington, DC and at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in the District of Columbia. A $25,000 grant will be provided to the United States Postal Inspection Service to operate the programs with a grant of $500,000 to each of the five cities and counties in the US that will be involved. To learn more and see the program in action, please click here. A nationwide pilot project to test the effectiveness of the American Attorney General’s National Traffic Safety Institute-funded pilot program, known as the CHSIS-IV, is being conducted at the University of Texas at Austin by the United States Department of Transportation as part of its implementation of a pilot program to detect and evaluate the safety concerns associated with seat belt deployment. The results of the pilot program will impact how law enforcement officers in Texas and across the United States deploy to the state, county and city of Austin to provide adequate information and recommendations to make a positive impact on distracted driving and driving-related crashes. As part of this study, each of three communities within Austin (Austin Heights, Oak Hill, and Jefferson Counties) with a population of 15,000 are conducting a pilot to evaluate the design and operation of the public safety department to address the concerns of persons driving in public places in those communities. In evaluating the results of this pilot program, the cities and counties in which they are involved will determine whether it is successful, whether new technology is necessary, and whether the safety of individuals driving for public use requires them to deploy a seat belt. Each of the communities is conducting a statewide pilot to evaluate the effectiveness of the American Attorney General’s Traffic Safety Institute-funded pilot program, known as the CHSIS-IV
“The success of the ASLLLA pilot program shows that the public expects states’ safety in the seat belt business to improve, and the current efforts of state and local law enforcement officials to address such challenges have not resulted in an effective and cost-effective solution. This was a critical step for safety education in our state. The ASLLLA pilot project will allow officers to engage the public more fully about this issue, and it will result in the more positive outcomes for the public in terms of saving lives and reducing road deaths,” said Brad Evans, the ADACP’s Senior Program Director. He added, “The pilot effort will improve people’s sense of safety, to reduce the number of deaths and injuries from car accidents, and to improve the likelihood of effective outcomes.”
“The ASLLLA pilot offers officers the ability to apply the current information gained from the pilot program to address a wide range of issues that have plagued our nation’s seat belt systems for the past five years. As soon as the public is able to review the current technology and information collected and applied through the ASLLLA pilot programs, most officers in Washington and Oakland will have the confidence to proceed with the deployment of seat belts that reduce collisions in Washington and Oakland. These policies are important to our safety at all times, and should be implemented to reduce road death or injury and increase the safety of all members of our community,” stated John E. Leach, head of ASALLLA’s Office of Policy and Advocacy.
In a press release issued today, the ADAC recommended all local or regional police departments adopt a seat belt safety rule as part of training and development efforts. It also recommended training, including education, including the mandatory use of seat belts at most local and regional police stations worldwide.
To learn more about ASLLLA, read the ASALLLA Blog and visit the ASALLLA Web site.
The report was authored by the attorneys and staff from the ADACP to begin with, Brad Evans. The staff includes: Chief Justice John G. Roberts, John A. Macomber Jr., Chief Justice Margaret C. Sledge, Assistant Chief Justice Douglas J. M. Brown and Sandra C. Phillips
The ACLU of Washington issued a report this year on the effectiveness of California’s seat belt law–its proponents say it may be the most effective, and would save lives in the event of a crash in Washington.
“Today’s report by the ACLU of Washington affirms the effectiveness and practicality of the American Academy of State and Local Law Enforcement’s (ASLLLA) pilot program to evaluate seat belt safety,” said the report’s senior legal counsel in the U.S. Attorney for Western District of Virginia, Jeff E. Wilcox. “Many cities and counties, particularly to Washington and Oakland, are now using the model that provides officers with a standard system of mandatory seat belts. In fact, at least one county has implemented a new law that, among other things, prevents the city’s police from wearing a badge. These policies are necessary to create a safe, secure driving environment, but others are not.”
”A federal agency, the US Department of Transportation, has found that seat belt deployment is ineffective in reducing drunk and driving deaths in a large number of cities and states. In the short term, the U.S. Department of Transportation finds that it has no other success than deploying police to cities and states where they are needed most, as they have in the past. This success is based largely on the ability of many of the states and localities in which the police officers currently patrol, according to the Department of Transportation. In addition to the safety improvements described above, a pilot program at American Academy of State and Local Law Enforcement with federal grant funding is being implemented to evaluate which cities and cities have adopted or could soon adopt such standards.–
An American Academy of State and Local Law Enforcement-sponsored pilot program (ANAL”), which is available exclusively to law enforcement officers,@lawenforcement, will take place on the first weekend of the week of May 17 through May 21 at the American University of Justice’s School of Law and Technology in Washington, DC and at the Thomas Jefferson School of Law in the District of Columbia. A $25,000 grant will be provided to the United States Postal Inspection Service to operate the programs with a grant of $500,000 to each of the five cities and counties in the US that will be involved. To learn more and see the program in action, please click here. A nationwide pilot project to test the effectiveness of the American Attorney General’s National Traffic Safety Institute-funded pilot program, known as the CHSIS-IV, is being conducted at the University of Texas at Austin by the United States Department of Transportation as part of its implementation of a pilot program to detect and evaluate the safety concerns associated with seat belt deployment. The results of the pilot program will impact how law enforcement officers in Texas and across the United States deploy to the state, county and city of Austin to provide adequate information and recommendations to make a positive impact on distracted driving and driving-related crashes. As part of this study, each of three communities within Austin (Austin Heights, Oak Hill, and Jefferson Counties) with a population of 15,000 are conducting a pilot to evaluate the design and operation of the public safety department to address the concerns of persons driving in public places in those communities. In evaluating the results of this pilot program, the cities and counties in which they are involved will determine whether it is successful, whether new technology is necessary, and whether the safety of individuals driving for public use requires them to deploy a seat belt. Each of the communities is conducting a statewide pilot to evaluate the effectiveness of the American Attorney General’s Traffic Safety Institute-funded pilot program, known as the CHSIS-IV
“The success of the ASLLLA pilot program shows that the public expects states’ safety in the seat belt business to improve, and the current efforts of state and local law enforcement officials to address such challenges have not resulted in an effective and cost-effective solution. This was a critical step for safety education in our state. The ASLLLA pilot project will allow officers to engage the public more fully about this issue, and it will result in the more positive outcomes for the public in terms of saving lives and reducing road deaths,” said Brad Evans, the ADACP’s Senior Program Director. He added, “The pilot effort will improve people’s sense of safety, to reduce the number of deaths and injuries from car accidents, and to improve the likelihood of effective outcomes.”
“The ASLLLA pilot offers officers the ability to apply the current information gained from the pilot program to address a wide range of issues that have plagued our nation’s seat belt systems for the past five years. As soon as the public is able to review the current technology and information collected and applied through the ASLLLA pilot programs, most officers in Washington and Oakland will have the confidence to proceed with the deployment of seat belts that reduce collisions in Washington and Oakland. These policies are important to our safety at all times, and should be implemented to reduce road death or injury and increase the safety of all members of our community,” stated John E. Leach, head of ASALLLA’s Office of Policy and Advocacy.
In a press release issued today, the ADAC recommended all local or regional police departments adopt a seat belt safety rule as part of training and development efforts. It also recommended training, including education, including the mandatory use of seat belts at most local and regional police stations worldwide.
To learn more about ASLLLA, read the ASALLLA Blog and visit the ASALLLA Web site.
The report was authored by the attorneys and staff from the ADACP to begin with, Brad Evans. The staff includes: Chief Justice John G. Roberts, John A. Macomber Jr., Chief Justice Margaret C. Sledge, Assistant Chief Justice Douglas J. M. Brown and Sandra C. Phillips
In North Carolina, the “Click It or Ticket” program was put into place in 1993 by former Governor Jim Hunt to increase safety belt and child safety use rates through stepped up enforcement of the states safety belt law. According to North Carolinas safety belt law all drivers and front seat passengers over the age of 16 are required to wear safety belts. Children less than age 16 are covered under the North Carolina Child Restraint Law. This law requires that children must be buckled up no matter where they are seated in the vehicle. Violators of the safety belt law are issued tickets and are subject to a fine of $25 plus $50 court costs. These violations have been defined as “infractions” and are not entered on driving records. In addition to this, effective January 1, 2005, any child less than 8 years old or 80 pounds in weight must ride in a booster seat. Violations of this law will result in a $25 fine plus court costs as well as having 2 points placed against drivers license. However, drivers cited for this violation of this law for a 5,6, or 7 year old will be able to have the charges dismissed if they present proof to the court that they have acquired an appropriate restraint for that child. Statistics have been gathered on safety belt use since this program began and has shown that seat belt use has increased from 65 percent to 84 percent. It has also shown that fatal and serious injuries in North Carolina have been cut by 14 percent. Resulting in a savings of at least $135 million in health care related costs. Other positive effects of this program have been: reduced insurance cost statewide, the discovery of criminal offenders, and million of dollars have been given to local school districts from the collection of the fines.
When trying to determine whether or not it is proper to put someone in jail for violating the seat belt law courts must examine the states statutes to determine whether or not an arrest could be deemed a violation of the citizens Fourth Amendment rights. The Fourth Amendment provides the right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized. Historically courts have evaluated these cases by first determining if probable cause existed to make the arrest. Next, they look at the reasonableness of the arrest, with reasonableness being measured as an objective standard, not by the arresting officers state of mind.
In the case of Dunaway v. New York the court stated that the probable cause standard applies to all arrests, without the need to balance the interests and circumstances involved in a particular situation. In other words, if and officer arrests an individual whom he or she believes to have committed even a minor crime in his presence there has been no violation committed. The cases of both Whren v. United States and Dunaway v. New York established that in cases of typical arrests, probable cause is the constitutional standard, and neither more nor less is required to justify a seizure.
When determining the reasonableness of an arrest, courts traditionally evaluate it by balancing the degree of the intrusion on the individual against the degree to which the intrusion is necessary to further a legitimate governmental interest. For an arrest or seizure to be deemed unreasonable, the arrest or seizure must be made in some extraordinary manner which is unusually harmful to the privacy or physical interest of the arrestee. Therefore, if an arrest does not include any extraordinary intrusiveness beyond that of a typical arrest or detention it is concluded to be reasonable.
When applying these standards of probable cause and reasonableness to the issue of an arrest of a seat belt law violator one must look to the case of Atwater v. City of Largo Vista. This case was argued December 4, 2000 and decided April 24, 2001.