PROBLEM IDENTIFICATION

Law enforcement agencies in NHTSA Region III have the necessary training and skills to enforce the laws about driving under the influence, safety belts, child safety seats, speeding and other highway safety areas. However, many do not have the public education and media relations staff to help plan and implement effective public information campaigns to support these law enforcement efforts. This type of assistance can be very valuable when an agency wants to participate in a national effort, such as National Child Passenger Safety Awareness (CPSA) Week.

GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

The You Can Re-Lion Your Seat Belt project was designed to encourage police throughout the Region to enforce child and infant safety seat laws and to educate the public about the benefits of safety belt laws and the correct use of these devices. Specific project objectives include:

• To develop a public relations campaign that could be easily implemented by jurisdictions that did not have extensive in-house public relations programs
• To provide local law enforcement departments with the basic tools to create and execute a local campaign
• To educate police departments on how to develop and implement their own public relations campaign
• To motivate police departments to take ownership of a highway safety issue and to implement their own local program.

You Can Re-Lion Your Safety Belt (cont'd)

STRATEGIES AND ACTIVITIES

NHTSA's Region III used a contractor to help design the You Can Re-Lion Your Safety Belt program and supporting materials for CPSA Week. The centerpiece of the campaign was a small stuffed lion with the Safety Belt theme embroidered on its chest. The lion was to be given to children who were observed to be properly secured in infant or child safety seats. A How-To Activity Kit which contained all the tools needed to implement the campaign, including a Child Passenger Safety Week Activity Guide, sample media information, news articles, letters to the editor, public service announcements, a proclamation, and a coloring sheet, was also developed. The You Can Re-Lion Your Safety Belt kits were distributed to the occupant protection coordinator in each state in Region III, who distributed them to local police jurisdictions. The law enforcement jurisdictions then placed orders for the number of lions they would need for their week-long program.

Jurisdictions were encouraged to conduct safety belt checkpoints at locations where high volumes of children could be observed, such as schools, day care centers and shopping malls. When a child was not properly secured, citations and warnings were issued and the driver was provided with educational information about the use of safety seats and safety belts. The local police jurisdictions were also encouraged to complete and distribute fill-in-the blank press releases about the check-points to the local media.

RESULTS

Using just the State of Maryland as an example of the level of activity throughout the region, the program was a significant success. All 23 counties and the City of Baltimore participated and more than 25,000 lions were distributed during CPSA Week. In addition, 2,433 child safety seat citations and 1,064 warnings were issued in this one-week period. More than 4,500 safety belt citations and 1,800 warnings were issued during this same period. These figures are roughly three times the level of enforcement activity experienced in previous years.

The program generated a positive reaction from the law enforcement community and from the general public, despite the number of citations issued. One parent told a news reporter that she appreciated learning how to secure her child properly and "If I have to pay a price for that, fine." The program was viewed by those jurisdictions participating to be a good way to promote positive relations between law enforcement and the community.