Seat Belt Violators Caught By Cops Wearing Night Vision Goggles:
Maryland State Police say they issued 111 tickets last night in a seat belt enforcement operation in Rockville.
111 x
The fine for not wearing a seat belt in Maryland is 25 dollars.
111 x 25 = 2775!
Three thousand bucks per night in a small enforcement operation in a single town. Those night vision goggles not only pay for themselves, but they pay for the cops who wear them, and probably a couple days of meals on wheels to boot.
Thank you for making seatbelt offenses a primary offense, giving incentive to law enforcement to pull over people who aren’t wearing their seatbelts after dark instead of chasing hardened criminals who might shoot back.
You could equally well argue that by encouraging people to wear their seat belts the police are doing something positive for the majority: I suspect a car crash is a more common cause of injury than a holdup.
I have no problem with the police enforcing safety laws. If you don’t think safety is an important issue, you probably haven’t seen how an injury – especially a brain injury – can change the lives of everyone associated with the injured person.