Metropolitan Police Chief Charles H. Ramsey today released the following statement on the success of the first three days of the DCs Clickin'! Child Passenger Safety Week enforcement and education initiative for the District of Columbia:

"Metropolitan Police officers issued 28 child safety seat citations and 518 seat belt citations to motorists during checkpoints held Monday through Wednesday. As importantly, our officers gave away 19 new child safety seats and showed another 38 motorists how to properly install the seats they already had.

"These impressive results are in addition to our everyday enforcement of the District's child safety seat and seat belt laws -- the most comprehensive in the nation. Because of our ongoing efforts, 82 percent of District drivers now buckle up. This week, Metropolitan Police are making an extra effort to get everyone buckled up every time -- especially children.

"No officer enjoys writing a ticket, but we will issue as many as needed to keep kids safe. Our message in the District of Columbia is clear: if anyone, in any car, is not properly buckled up -- driver, passenger or child -- the driver will be stopped, ticketed, fined and assessed two points on his or her license. No exceptions. No excuses. And if any motorists need a child safety seat, we will make sure they get the information on how to obtain a loaner car seat through Project Safe Child."

Chief Ramsey and the DCs Clickin'! Coalition joined Mayor Anthony Williams, U.S Transportation Secretary Rodney E. Slater and other officials on Tuesday to kick off the District's week-long child safety seat and seat belt enforcement and education effort . They also announced the opening of two additional car seat loaner sites, in Congress Heights and Anacostia in Southeast D.C. This brings to 16 the total number of child safety seat loaner sites in the District.

"If you are a District resident and need a car seat, call our hotline at 202-939-8017 between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. and we'll direct you to a loaner site near your home," said Art Lawson, acting Director of the Department of Public Works, which runs Project Safe Child.

DCs Clickin'! -- a coopertive partnership of the Department of Public Works, the DC SAFE KIDS Coalition , the Ronald Reagan Institute of EmergencyMedicine at The George Washington University Medical Center and the Metropolitan Police Department -- boosts child safety seat and seat belt use by combining public education with law enforcement initiatives.

For additional information contact:

• Greg Pinelo
  Will Taliaferro
  202-338-8700