Police say no quota for seat-belt tickets

By Johnny Brannon
Advertiser Staff Writer

Honolulu police aim to issue more than 6,000 traffic tickets through a special seat-belt enforcement program beginning today, but officers do not have to meet any specific ticket quota per shift, officials say.

The goal of the "Click It or Ticket" program is to increase the percentage of drivers and passengers who wear seat belts, rather than to issue citations, Honolulu Police Department spokeswoman Michelle Yu said.

But some criminal justice specialists said that even an implied quota raises questions about whether drivers will be targeted too aggressively, and that it is important to scrutinize enforcement efforts that include financial incentives.

"Clearly there are expectations, and expectations influence behavior," University of Hawai'i assistant professor of sociology David Johnson said. "The question is whether the expectations are appropriate."

Officers on overtime paid for by a $100,000 federal grant will be deployed between today and June 6 to issue tickets to unbuckled drivers and passengers and will also cite drivers when children are not properly restrained in child safety seats.

Last year, officers who participated in a similar overtime enforcement program received memos stating that they were to issue at least four tickets per hour, and that they could be excluded from the program if they did not.

That effort targeted speeding and other traffic offenses, including seat-belt violations, and was paid for by HPD's own overtime account rather than a grant. The controversial quota directive was later retracted, and police said there are no such orders this year and no officer sanctions based solely on the number of citations issued.

But officials acknowledged that HPD's grant application states that police expect to issue 6,257 tickets for seat-belt and child-restraint violations and 219 tickets for other offenses, and that those numbers will be used to evaluate the success of the grant. Yu said officers assigned to the program will not issue warnings, only tickets.

And the Maui Police Department's grant application for the same program uses language that strongly suggests a quota. It states that officers who participate "will issue an average of 3.5 seat belt and/or child restraint citations per hour." Maui Police Chief Thomas Phillips could not immediately be reached for comment. But acting Lt. Jamie Becraft said the department generally does not use any quotas.

Big Island police expect to issue 2,700 tickets for seat-belt and child-restraint violations, and 450 for other violations, according to the Hawai'i Police Department's grant application. Kaua'i police expect to issue 700 seat-belt and child-seat tickets and 250 for other violations.

The state sparked a firestorm of criticism earlier this year when it contracted with a private company to track speeders with cameras and issue citations in the mail. Many drivers were outraged that the company stood to profit from issuing as many tickets as possible, and the Legislature later repealed the program.

Attorney Michael Kam, who defended many drivers ticketed by the cameras, said any type of citation quota would normally be a big concern for him, but that the seat-belt enforcement program appeared somewhat different.

Traffic camera operators often issued citations to drivers who were going just a few miles over the speed limit, which virtually every driver does at some point to pass other vehicles or change lanes, he said. But there is really no such gray area with seat belts.

"In this case, you either have it on or you don't," Kam said. "If the public is made more aware and buckles up, even if police had a quota they couldn't just make it up that a driver wasn't wearing a seat belt. And to me, if they can't make a quota it's a good sign, even if it's an unofficial quota."

Seat-belt violations carry a fine of up to $67, plus a $15 administrative fee and $7 driver education fee. The state has launched a $350,000 advertising campaign to warn drivers about the enforcement program and urge them to buckle up.

Officials say that about 83.5 percent of Hawai'i drivers regularly use seat belts, but that improvement is needed. Nearly half of the 474 people who died in traffic accidents in Hawai'i during the past six years were not wearing seat belts, according to the Department of Transportation.

Reach Johnny Brannon at jbrannon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8070.