Use of Safety Restraints by Law Enforcement Officers Following Safety Belt Training and Passage of a State-Wide Belt Law

摘要

The report describes work performed in 1984-1985 to develop and evaluate a safety belt program designed for the Maryland State Police - Belt Use Campaign for Law Enforcement (BUCLE), and an evaluation conducted in 1987 to determine the impact of the program on the belt use of the Maryland State Police following enactment of a mandatory safety belt use law in Maryland. The initial evaluation of the program, prior to the mandatory use law, found a significant increase in observed belt use - from 21 percent prior to the program to 42 percent after the program. A second evaluation of the program, following passage of the mandatory safety belt use law (the law does not exclude police officers from using safety belts), found the observed belt use by the Maryland State Police to be 91 percent.