Seatbelt Crackdown Returning To Bloomfield: ‘Click It Or Ticket’

BLOOMFIELD, NJ — The Bloomfield Police Department will be taking part in the national “Click It Or Ticket” seatbelt enforcement campaign again for 2021.

Beginning May 24 and running through June 6, Bloomfield police will join with their peers around the country and look for unbuckled motorists and passengers.

The annual “Click It or Ticket” national mobilization utilizes “high-visibility seat belt checkpoints” and saturation patrols, in combination with local and national publicity efforts, to reiterate the life-saving value of seat belts.

The 2020 effort was canceled due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In New Jersey, a key focus of this year’s campaign is to promote seat belt usage by adults in all seating positions in the vehicle, both front and rear seats, officials said.

“The front seat belt usage rate in New Jersey currently stands at 90.23 percent,” police said. “However, adults riding in rear seats are buckling up at a significantly lower rate, only 48 percent according to the most recent surveys.”

“For whatever reason there seems to be a disconnect with people feeling they don’t need to buckle up when riding as passengers in rear seats – and this is a concern,” said Eric Heitmann, director of the New Jersey Division of Highway Traffic Safety.

“By promoting back seat usage of seat belts during our Click It or Ticket campaign, we’re encouraging passenger habits that will save lives,” Heitmann said.

During the 2019 Click it or Ticket campaign, 343 New Jersey police agencies participated in the two-week initiative. As a result of the effort, law enforcement officers issued 14,548 seat belt citations, 5,670 speeding summonses and made 858 impaired driving arrests, officials said.

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