[ARCHIVED THREAD] - One Step Closer to a Police State (Page 1 of 3)
Posted: 3/29/2008 10:52:10 AM EDT
Stopping people to see if they are wearing seatbelts in Lancaster PA. West Hempfield Township police conduct a seat-belt check along Marietta Pike on Friday. 1 of 1Despite a prolonged advertising campaign warning that seat-belt use is mandatory in Pennsylvania, some people still ignore the law. But not many. West Hempfield Township police officers stopped 613 vehicles at a safety checkpoint Friday afternoon and found that only a dozen failed to be in compliance with the state's seat-belt law. Chief Mark G. Pugliese said the checkpoint, operated just outside the West Hempfield police station, 3401 Marietta Pike, was part of the Buckle Up Pennsylvania initiative. Pugliese said he was impressed by the results of the traffic stop, in which police found no breach of child safety-seat laws. "We were pleased with the seat belt usage that we encountered and the kids being in the proper car seats," he said. Pugliese said an inordinate amount of dangerous driving occurs on the stretch of Marietta Pike near the West Hempfield station. "Statistics from the state that give us a breakdown of our worst roads show that Marietta Pike from 2001 to 2005 was a target roadway that has had aggressive driving and alcohol-related accidents," Pugliese said. That stretch of Marietta Pike is one of 200 identified by the state Department of Transportation for low seat-belt use or high rates of unbelted crashes. A 23-year-old woman from Mount Joy was killed in January after being thrown from her vehicle when it veered off the highway and struck a fence and rocks in the 3700 block of Marietta Pike between Silver Spring Road and Hempfield Hill Road. She was not wearing a seat belt. "That accident is typical of an accident with an unbuckled driver," Pugliese said. "You'll never know if wearing a seat belt would have prevented the death or not, but the fact that they were thrown from their vehicle is why we do these checkpoints." Buckle Up Pennsylvania and the "Click It or Ticket" ad campaign were launched in 2000 by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and PennDOT to aid state and local police in seat-belt enforcement and education. West Hempfield has been running selective enforcement details since March 17 and will continue to do so until the end of the month. It is one of two police departments in the region selected to be part of the Seat Belt Check Point pilot program, Pugliese said. Police issued no citations for seat-belt violations because it is considered a secondary offense for which offenders can be ticketed only if they were stopped for another infraction. Pugliese said only one person was cited Friday, the result of a vehicle inspection violation. Another driver, who had several children in his vehicle, was forced to find alternative transportation after police determined one of the car's tires was worn to an unsafe level. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that seat-belt use has increased from 69 percent to 86.7 percent since 2000. E-mail: [email protected] |
Vote in people that will slash their budget so their city managers and police administration can be a bit more judicious about the application of police officers? Sounds like a plan! 
|
Stay out of my life nanny......problem solved. |
Seriously.... Wearing a seatbelt is no doubt smart, but if someone wants to be darwined out and not wear one, that's their perogative. |
Absolutely, My family and I wear them every time we get in a vehicle. I'm just sick and tired of govt. nannies telling us all what we can and can't do. |
And where does that state money come from? The money tree? It's a waste of police and taxpayer resources. If the police have loads of time to be allocated to essentially useless activities, then the taxpayer should be spared and personell/expenditure cut. |
Especially since not wearing a seatbelt onlt effects the person not wearing it, unlike, say, drunk driving. Waste of time, money, etc. |
"Problem solved." lol at that ridiculous notion... Baaaaaa. 
|
As I said, these are usually OT details that have zero impact on officers answering calls for service. legislatures fund these grants because it is seen as a legitimate issue deserving funding. Talk to the politicians. |
|
LOL, you guys are funny. Seatbelts = Police State. Some of you need to get a passport and go visit a few actual police states...if you can even get in. N. Korea is a Police State. The USA is not. It is silly and flat out insulting it is to call seatbelt laws a police state when there are people who lived in actual police states and ended up in concentration camps, gulags, etc. You nullify any point you might be trying to make about the issue when you exaggerate that wildly.  |
Fixed it for ya.. |
Somebody didn't read too closely. 
They didn't make any money to speak of. So, why did they do this? Seems there is an initiative to increase seat belt wearing that is sponsored by the State.
You guys that live up there.....You don't like it? I can sure see why. So, why don't you quit blaming the police and blame those actually responsible, the State Legislature. Contact your State Legislature and get them to make Seat Belt Inspection Stops illegal. See? Problem solved. That's how we do it in the Home of the Free and the Land of the Brave. If we see a bad law, we get it changed. So simple.  |
| I think that is about more making some cashage on the weekend for the city. But however I do not agree with traffic stop points like this. I do feel it infinges upon your rights given to us. But at the same time I have read about these check points actually catching criminals by sure luck of the draw. So good and bad. |
Don't own firearms, ATF problems solved. --sheeple. |
Dern, you guys need to learn to read.  They didn't make any money, as they didn't issue tickets. And, it didn't use precious resourses in manpower, as the State of Penn paid overtime for these officers to be used for this one project, "Buckle Up Pennsylvania initiative". Reading is Fundemental. |
Scraping fools out of their wrecks (or off the road/median) after they kissed the windshield too hard costs money as well (additional police, medics to zip the pile of meat up, examinations, paperwork, etc). |
I can't tell if that was stupposed to be sarcastic or just stupid. Where did "the state" get the money? Correct, looting the Taxpayers. And this was a waste. resourses - resources Fundemental - Fundamental |
Well Det0nate, you got me. My fat finger misspelled Fundamental and resources. Good for you. However, I never said this wasn't a waste of taxpayer's money. I believe it is, in fact. My point is still valid. If you don't like it, contact the State Legislature and change the laws. (And by the way, "supposed", not "stupposed". ) |
Because it was the "Buckle Up Pennsylvania initiative". The state sponsored an initiative to increase seat belt wearing. It is stupid, but it isn't the police department's fault. They don't write laws or sponsor initiatives. The State Legislature does that. Get mad at the right guys. |
Then why don't you delete the part you quoted about the seatbelt stop? Oh, I see. It was indeed about a seat belt stop, because that's all you posted about. Do you think your 4th Amendment rights are being violated? Then please tell us how you are going to do something about that? |
Fire cops due to budget issues?  Can you imagine the sheeple outcry!Did you all miss the Police want UAVs thread yesterday too? We are not nearing a police state we are in one that will get much worse. |
How about repealing that dumbass law and let people and thier insurance companies deal with the issue instead of the nannystate? |
yeah...one step away from Nazi Germany there  Seriously...read a history book. Travel. Learn... This issue is so minor that it is beyond trivial. When you freak out and declare that a police state is coming over something this silly, you look like the boy who cried wolf. Don't be that boy...people won't take you seriously when there is an actual wolf. |