Indianapolis runs May 11–31 Click It

Seat-belt enforcement is about to get more visible in Indianapolis. Starting Sunday, May 11, IMPD officers will work overtime through May 31 as part of the annual Click It or Ticket campaign, with extra patrols and checkpoints looking for drivers and passengers who are not buckled up. The point is simple — more stops now, before Memorial Day travel ramps up and summer roads get busier. In Indiana, this is not a secondary add-on ticket. Police can stop a car just for a seat-belt violation. ### What is actually happening in Indianapolis? IMPD is joining the national Click It or Ticket push from May 11 through May 31, and the department says officers will be out on overtime enforcement during daytime and evening hours. That means more traffic stops, more visible patrols, and some checkpoints around the city focused on seat-belt compliance rather than waiting to tack a citation onto some other violation. (msn.com) ### Why can police stop you just for this? Indiana has a primary seat-belt law. Basically, if an officer sees someone riding unbuckled, that alone is enough for a stop. The law applies to each occupant in a vehicle equipped with factory-installed belts, not just the driver or front-seat passenger. That matters because some people still assume the back seat is different — in Indiana, it is not. (msn.com) ### What does the ticket cost? The headline number is $25 — that is the base fine for a seat-belt violation in Indiana. But the catch is that “starts at $25” does not always mean the total amount a driver ends up paying after local processing and court-related add-ons. For a quick explainer, though, $25 is the number officials are using to tell drivers what a basic seat-belt citation begins with. (faqs.in.gov) ### What about kids in the car? Indiana draws a harder line for younger passengers. Children under age 8 must be in a child restraint system, which usually means a car seat or booster used the way the manufacturer says to use it. Indiana State Police also pushes parents to keep kids rear-facing or harnessed as long as the seat allows, because the legal minimum and the safest setup are not always the same thing. (indystar.com) ### Why is this happening now? Because this is the national pre–Memorial Day enforcement window. NHTSA’s 2026 campaign also runs May 11 through May 31, and the whole idea is high-visibility enforcement before one of the busiest travel periods of the year. Indianapolis is not doing something unusual on its own here — it is plugging into a bigger national crackdown timed to summer driving. (in.gov) ### Why do officials keep focusing on nighttime? Because that is where the numbers get uglier. NHTSA says nearly 50% of passenger-vehicle occupants killed in 2024 were unrestrained, and at night the share of fatalities involving unbuckled people rose to 56%. Young adults 18 to 34 were a particularly bad group — 59% of those killed in passenger vehicles in 2024 were unrestrained. That helps explain why these campaigns lean so hard on visibility and repetition. (nhtsa.gov) ### So what should drivers expect? Expect a pretty ordinary drive with a higher chance of being noticed if someone in the car is not buckled. That is really the whole story. From May 11 through May 31, Indianapolis drivers should assume seat-belt enforcement is getting extra attention — and that a simple, visible violation can be enough to get pulled over. (nhtsa.gov) ### Bottom line? This is a short, targeted enforcement blitz, not a change in the law. But for the next three weeks, Indianapolis police are putting extra hours behind a rule they can already enforce on sight — so if someone in the car is not buckled, that is the risk. (faqs.in.gov) (indystar.com)