[Vision2020] Question for the Vision

Mon Nov 20 13:40:36 PST 2006

I like the "junior seat belt officers" idea. And I think parents should do
their own parenting, there was a time when having your local constable have
a chat with your kids might put the fear of God into the child, but I think
that time is past and our officers are already harried enough. Parents need
to be parents, not their kid's best friend. The friendship part comes after
the child is an adult.
  -----Original Message-----
  From: Jennifer McFarland [mailto:jmcfarland at latah.id.us]
  Sent: Monday, November 20, 2006 1:26 PM
  To: 'Kai Eiselein, editor'; 'Vision 2020'
  Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Question for the Vision

  Interesting points, Kai.  Speaking of education, I wonder what people
think about the programs that encourage kids to be "junior seat belt
officers."  Firemen go to schools and tell kids they need smoke detectors
and to pressure their parents into getting them; what about the programs
that ask kids to "police" their parents about using seat belts?

  On a related topic: Parents often call the Sheriff's Office or Police
Department and ask us (the officers) to "scare" their children about the
evils of swearing/stealing/hitting/refusing to wear a seat belt/talking
back, or any number of other things.  Their theory seems to be that we're
scarier or more authoritative than they are.  Where should we draw the line
and tell parents to do their own parenting, or should we?

  Det. Jennifer L. McFarland
  Latah County Sheriff's Office
  Public Information Officer
  PO Box 8068
  Moscow, Idaho 83843
  (208) 882-2216
  Fax (208) 883-2281
  http://www.latah.id.us/Dept/Sheriff_Main.htm

  Truth is the summit of being; justice is the application of it to affairs.
  ***Ralph Waldo Emerson

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
--

  From: Kai Eiselein, editor [mailto:editor at lataheagle.com]
  Sent: Monday, November 20, 2006 13:17
  To: Jennifer McFarland; 'Vision 2020'
  Subject: RE: [Vision2020] Question for the Vision

  I believe that all persons under the age of 18 should be belted, and
officers should be able to pull over a vehicle if they see an unbelted
minor.

  Adults, however, should make their own choices.

  I say this in light of the fact that I ALWAYS wear a seatbelt and twice
have walked away relatively uninjured because of them, including an end over
end rollover.

  I've also been injured by a seatbelt; compression fractures in my back.
But that was an oddball accident and if I hadn't been wearing a seatbelt,
the doctors said I would have probably broken my neck.

  What is needed is better education as to WHY people need to use seatbelts
and use actual, close up, gory photos of those that didn't. I've crawled
into a car after a guy hit a telephone pole at 30 mph with no belt and it is
not a pretty sight. Maybe if people see the real, unsanitized results, their
seatbelt usage would change.

  I think our police have better things to do than play parent to adult
drivers.

  It also seems a bit goofy to me to toughen seatbelt laws on adults, while
having no helmet law for them.

  Just my two cents worth.

    -----Original Message-----
    From: vision2020-bounces at moscow.com
[mailto:vision2020-bounces at moscow.com]On Behalf Of Jennifer McFarland
    Sent: Monday, November 20, 2006 12:16 PM
    To: 'Vision 2020'
    Subject: [Vision2020] Question for the Vision

    Dear Visionaries,

    I hope you are all doing well as we enter the holiday season.  I issued
a press release a little over a week ago alerting the public of our "Click
It Don't Risk It!" seat belt compliance campaign.  I'm happy to say that of
the 15 cars I pulled over yesterday, only one person was not in compliance
with Idaho's seat belt laws.  However, I was just visited by a friend form
the Lewiston Police Department (our partner in this year's campaign), and he
and I talked about our laws relative to Washington's laws.  In Idaho, an
officer must pull a car over for a "greater" offense (speeding, having a
registration sticker in the wrong place, not having a front plate, etc.) in
order to enforce the seat belt laws.  In other words, I cannot pull over a
car just because I see a small child standing up in the back seat-I'd have
to have other probable cause to pull over said vehicle.  The Lewiston
officer I've been working with has spent a lot of time trying to change
Idaho's laws regarding seat belt use to: 1. make it a primary offense, and
2. raise the fines so they are commensurate with other states' fines for the
same.  I've heard arguments supporting both sides to this, but I am curious
as to what Latah County's citizens think about our seat belt laws-whether
they are adequate as they are, if they should change, how they should
change, etc.  My own views on seat belt usage have as much to do with how I
was raised as they do with a general aversion to the gruesome scenes I've
experienced responding to collisions wherein the passenger(s) were not
properly restrained (and having to notify next of kin).  But I also realize
that my experience is just that-mine.  What are your thoughts?

    Thank you for your time,

    ~Jennifer

    Det. Jennifer L. McFarland
    Latah County Sheriff's Office
    Public Information Officer
    PO Box 8068
    Moscow, Idaho 83843
    (208) 882-2216
    Fax (208) 883-2281
    http://www.latah.id.us/Dept/Sheriff_Main.htm

    Truth is the summit of being; justice is the application of it to
affairs.
    ***Ralph Waldo Emerson

  __________ NOD32 1874 (20061120) Information __________

  This message was checked by NOD32 antivirus system.
  http://www.eset.com
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20061120/cfcd035e/attachment.html 
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: image/jpeg
Size: 2743 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://mailman.fsr.com/pipermail/vision2020/attachments/20061120/cfcd035e/attachment.jpe 