Extra police patrols lead to 122 tickets

Published 10:51 am Friday, June 13, 2014

They didn’t click it, so they got a ticket.

A lot of them.

Between May 19 and June 1, extra police patrols were conducted in Kitsap County with officers on the lookout for unbuckled drivers and passengers, and drivers who were using cell phones or texting.

Officials said the “Click it or Ticket” patrols resulted in tickets for 81 seatbelt infractions, and another 41 citations were handed out for cell phone/texting violations.

The number of tickets was up from last year’s enhanced enforcement effort, where officers on extra patrols wrote 59 seat belt infractions and 16 cell phone violations.

This year, officers wrote 45 tickets for speeding, and made one DUI arrest, five misdemeanor warrant arrests, and apprehended two fugitives.  Also, 15 citations for uninsured motorists and 12 suspended/revoked license violations were issued this year.

Last year, during the same time period, officers on extra patrols statewide issued 2,963 seat belt violations amongst the 11,666 motorists who were stopped and 1,897 cell phone and texting violations were written.

In Kitsap County, the Bainbridge Island, Bremerton, Kitsap Naval Base, Port Orchard and Poulsbo police departments — as well as the Kitsap County Sheriff’s Office and the Washington State Patrol — worked the extra patrols, with the support of the Kitsap County Traffic Safety Task Force and a grant from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission.