The 2022 national Click It or Ticket campaign will be held from May 23 to June 5.
The event promotes the importance and safety features of wearing a seat belt whether you are a driver or passenger.
Three of the Riverside County Sheriff's Department's stations recently revealed plans to participate in the event, according to a press release. More stations may also announce their involvement, as technically the entire department is taking part in the campaign.
"Wearing a seat belt should be automatic for all drivers and passengers," department officials said in the press release. "It's the safe thing to do, especially when it comes to securing children in child safety seats."
As of Tuesday, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department had issued three separate but similar press releases from their San Jacinto, Moreno Valley, and Lake Elsinore stations. These shared the department's pledge to participate in this year's national Click It or Ticket seat belt safety campaign.
The enforcement campaign will include Memorial Day, as roads are heavily traveled during the holiday.
The three stations reminded those who are traveling this Memorial Day weekend to always buckle up and keep children in child safety seats.
The Sheriff's Department shared statistics from the National Highway Safety Administration (NHTSA), which found that 10,893 people killed in crashes around the country in 2020 were not wearing seat belts. Of these, 756 fatalities occurred in California, comprising nearly 20% of all traffic deaths in the state.
As part of the campaign, the stations will have extra officers on patrol, actively looking for passengers and drivers who are not wearing their seat belts. This includes monitoring vehicles for children who may not be secured in child safety seats.
The department also reminded people that California has a primary seat belt law that allows officers to ticket someone solely for not wearing a seat belt, even if they did not commit another traffic violation, the press release noted.
The California Office of Traffic Safety is funding the program with an NHTSA grant.