Understanding Seatbelt Noncompliance in Law Enforcement: A Systematic Review and Interview Findings

Motor vehicle crashes are a leading cause of law enforcement, line of duty deaths. Despite this, in the past 10 years there have only been four studies focused on law enforcement officers’ use of seatbelts. After conducting a focused literature review, researchers created a semi-structured interview focused on six domains: general background and job context, officer fatigue and workload, safety culture, risk perception, safe driving practices, and seatbelt usage. From these interviews five themes were identified:

Operational Practicality and Tactical Readiness

Officers frequently reported the need to quickly exit their vehicle on “traffic stops or emergencies”.

Cultural Modeling and Peer Influence

The organizational culture strongly affects the officers’ behavior. For example, field training officers are extremely influential with the behavior they model. Veteran officers do not use their seatbelts and tell young recruits not to wear their seatbelts. Conversely, in agencies that supervisors model the use of seatbelts and hold officers accountable are more likely to consistently wear their seatbelts.

Fatigue, Shift-Related Risks, and Cognitive Load

Previous research found irregular schedules and long shifts were linked to fatigue. Officers interviewed as part of this study reported sometimes they were so tired, they forget to buckle their seatbelts.

Training Limitations and Safety Messaging

Researchers found there was little on-going training emphasizing the need to wear seatbelts. In many cases, there is a lack of on-going focus on wearing seatbelts.

Policy Awareness and Enforcement Gaps

While most agencies have mandatory seatbelt usage, there is very little attention from supervisors to ensure compliance. This often results in the use of seatbelts being considered optional.

Agencies influence officers’ choices to wear seatbelts. Deep-seated perspectives regarding the use of seatbelts are an ‘operational hinderance’ as opposed to a protective device.  “This suggests a need to rethink how seatbelt safety is communicated – not as a restriction, but as a component of tactical survivability.” Seatbelt policies alone are not sufficient to ensure compliance. Leaders throughout the organization ‘must actively demonstrate and reinforce safety behaviors.’

Four evidence-based strategies were recommended to improve officers’ use of seatbelts.

• Reinforce compliance through visible leadership modeling and accountability.
• Implement recurring, hands-on seatbelt and driving safety training.
• Address operational barriers by teaching tactical techniques for rapid, safe egress from a belted position.
• Improve shift scheduling and manage fatigue to reduce motor vehicle crashes and attentional lapses.