For Your Own Good

Radley Balko | November 22, 2006

In Illinois, seat-belt enforcement checkpoints:

For the first time in Illinois, local and state law enforcement officers will have nighttime seatbelt enforcement zones to ensure that drivers are buckling up, the Illinois Department of Transportation announced Tuesday.

The department's division of traffic safety will pay $1 million in overtime to police officers enforcing the state's seat belt law.

[...]

This year, 204 law enforcement agencies around Illinois will set up 360 nighttime seat belt enforcement zones around the holidays, in addition to 658 zones set up during the daytime. Officers will operate the zones much like alcohol checkpoints and will look at whether drivers are wearing seat belts.

If they're able to pay for all that overtime by citing improperly affixed inspection stickers, expired registrations, or -- gold mine -- a joint or two that could lead to a forfeiture, all the better.  That seems to be what happens with DWI checkpoints.  Much as I'd like to say this is Nanny Statism at its worse (and it is), I suspect the prime motivation is revenue.

---