More than 200 area motorists learned just how seriously Snyder Police Department officers take seatbelts during the annual Click It or Ticket campaign.
Ten officers logged 74 hours of overtime over the course of the campaign, a Texas Department of Transportation (TxDOT) program designed to increase seat belt and child safety seat usage.
The officers kept watch for seat belt and other traffic violations, which resulted in 209 citations being issued through the 14 days of the program.
Of that number, 56 citations were for seat belt violations and six were for safety seat violations, said Cpl. Wendy Merket. In addition, five motorists were arrested, and 197 traffic citations and 47 warnings were issued.
Those figures do not include citations and arrests made during the officers’ normal work shifts.
A TxDOT grant paid for the officers’ overtime and vehicle usage, Merket said.
During the 2016 program, Snyder officers issued 230 citations — a quarter of which were seat belt-related — over an 80-hour period.
Merket said the number of citations were comparable to those issued during last year’s campaign, considering that officers logged six more overtime hours in 2016. But she added that increased public awareness kept the numbers from being even higher.
“We made it known through the media that we were going to be out there,” she said. “The success of the program will show in the motorists you see buckling up now. The guys and gals (at Snyder Police Department) put the pedal down and really went to work during the campaign.”