Education is seen as one of the key components to overcoming officer reluctance to use seat belts. Education should focus on the safety issues surrounding seat belts and show officers that seat belt use will not greatly impact their response time. A study on police vehicle crashes by the State University of New York at Buffalo found that over the 5-year period between 1997 and 2001, seat belt use among officers was infrequent and that 60 percent of fatal crashes occurred when police were responding to nonemergency calls. Among the crashes that occurred, 59.9 percent of officers were responding to nonemergency calls and 79.8 percent were wearing seat belts. Of the 104 officers who were not belted, 42 died in the crash. The author discusses the reasons that many police officers choose not to wear seat belts, even when department policy mandates their use. Officers’ reasons for not wearing seat belts included discomfort, the perception that it would slow their response time, and ridicule from their fellow officers. Despite officer reluctance regarding seat belt use, many municipal police agencies are being urged by their insurance carriers to require seat belt use and crack down on those who still refuse. So far, the perception is that State police agencies are more likely to mandate the use of seat belts while local and city police agencies do not, mainly due to the perception that city and local police vehicles travel at slower speeds.