Written by Gregory Monte.
On Monday I reported that Pennsylvania State Police Troop B issued way more seat belt violation tickets in 2019 than any of the other Troops: Seat Belt Ticket or Just a Warning?
Here is what I concluded in that post:
“You would think that no matter where you drive in Pennsylvania, the State Troopers would follow the same protocol for this “crime” of not wearing a seatbelt. In other words, the issuance of actual tickets vs. mere warnings should be somewhat equal in every county served by the police, correct?”
But this is not the case at all – not by a long shot.
It turns out that in 2019, you were almost 40x more likely to get a ticket (vs. a warning) from the PA State Police in Troop B than in Troop T.
The Update
When I did further research I found out something very interesting, however. First of all, the B “Cowboy” Troopers were not always such sticklers for seat belt enforcement. More significantly, however, before 2019 the disparity in tickets vs. warnings was no where near as large among the Troops.
NOTE: The 2017 table only includes data from Independence Day through New Year’s because the Pennsylvania Pressroom does not provide a breakdown by Troop before that time.
Notice that in years past warnings were much prevalent than actual tickets. The only conclusion that I can come to is that the state police are becoming less tolerant of motorists who don’t wear their seat belts.
I guess the expression “Click It or Ticket” really is the order of the day.
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