IUPD tries to win award for violations

The IU Police Department might receive a new squad car from the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute by the end of the year in a contest with other police departments. \nThe Institute will give the department with the most seat belt violations in each of 15 categories a key to the car. The department with the correct key will then win the new police cruiser.\nLast year, IUPD won $2,000 in the same program by issuing 632 seatbelt violations under Operation Pullover -- an initiative to stop drivers and passengers not wearing their seat belts. \nThis year IUPD issued 587 violations during the program's four phases.\nBut critics of the program say they think this selective enforcement is biased and special money dedicated to patrolling for seat belt violations is a waste. \nSophomore Adam Wissing said he feels money was wasted on selective enforcement when there are drug dealers and rapists running around free. He said money would be better spent on making people aware of the hazards of not wearing a seat belt through public relations messages and not penalizing people for not wearing a seat belt with a traffic citation.\nIUPD spokesman Lt. Jerry Minger said traffic officers don't go hunting down drug dealers anyway, and they would be remiss in not issuing citations for blatant and visible offenses like speeding and seat belt violations because they are so easily spotted. \n"Every veteran officer has been at the scene of an accident where a child or adult has either been thrown against or through a windshield or into a dash board," Minger said. "The more serious accidents sometimes result in people being thrown completely out of a vehicle. It should be so obvious that everyone should buckle up. Its just one more piece of the vehicle's safety equipment that should be used."\nThe IUPD received a $5,000 grant from the ICJI to pay for overtime from officers who worked on Operation Pullover. Even if IUPD wanted to spend the money on other things, it would not be allowed.\n"All of the police departments that receive the grants are mandated by the state of Indiana to use this money specifically for catching violators of the safety restraint laws," Minger said. "The state of Indiana awards the money and the police departments have no latitude to use the grant for anything else."\nThe department must schedule an extra officer on duty during a shift to run this operation, which means the officer's payroll goes up to almost $50 per hour.\nIUPD Officer Joe Amandola normally works from 11 p.m. to 7 a.m., but he picked up many of the seat belt patrol shifts.\nDuring two days last week, Amandola worked 16 hours of overtime, made 52 stops and issued 42 citations for seat belt violations.\n"75 percent of the people I pulled over knew they weren't wearing their seat belt and said 'Yeah, I know, I should have it on,'" Amandola said.\nStill, some say those who are being pulled over don't deserve to be tracked down like criminals.\n"In my view, the government has no right to tell people to wear a seat belt," Wissing said. "It's a matter of personal safety, and I think people are smart enough to make that decision on their own."\n-- Contact staff writer Brandon Morley at bmorley@indiana.edu.