MONMOUTH -- Turns out that a campaign to enforce Maine's seat belt laws is like a box of chocolates: You never know what you're going to get.

Take Monmouth Police Chief Robert Annese, for example. As head of one of 72 police departments around the state that began cracking down on unbuckled motorists this week, Annese and another officer have pulled over one vehicle for a suspected seat-belt violation and found a stash of cocaine.

On Thursday, a traffic stop for a seat-belt violation produced one arrest for drunken driving.

"We're really getting a lot out of the dedicated traffic enforcement stops," Annese said. "It's taking us into a lot of different areas, not just seat belts. We even got a shellfish violation, believe it or not."

The "Click It or Ticket" program, which began Monday and runs through June 1, provides police departments with state Bureau of Highway Safety money to conduct patrols dedicated primarily to enforcing the state's new seat-belt law.

The law, passed last year, made not wearing a seat belt a "primary offense," meaning police have free rein to pull drivers over for the lone infraction of not wearing a seat belt. In the past, police could only cite someone for failing to wear a seat belt if they were pulled over for some other reason.

Fines now range from $50 to $250 for adults and $70 to $310 for children.

In just the first four days, the dedicated patrols in Monmouth pulled over 37 vehicles over for various suspected violations, including seat-belt and registration infractions and speeding.

Of those pulled over, 17 were issued summonses for seat-belt violations; another 10 received warnings.

"We're finding it right now to be highly successful," Annese said.

Gardiner police stopped 36 cars during four details spread over the first three days of the campaign.

Those stops led to 36 summonses -- 33 of which were for seat-belt violations, Gardiner Police Chief James Toman said.

"It's a little surprising that people are still getting pulled over, based on all the media attention that's been given to this two-week event," Toman said.

Waterville Police will add one or two officers for high-visibility patrols searching for speeders, drunken drivers and seat-belt violations over the two-week period, Deputy Police Chief Charles Rumsey said.

A four-hour detail Tuesday led to eight summonses, Rumsey said.

"I certainly believe in the power of a heightened visibility enforcement campaign like this, to not only have a specific deterrent but a general deterrent," Rumsey said.

The Somerset County Sheriff's Department has sent deputies with police dogs into schools to talk to children about seat-belt safety, Chief Sheriff's Deputy John Carroll said.

"We're still doing a lot of (public relations) work," he said.

While his department is focusing on violations across the spectrum, Carroll said he expects the number of seat-belt violations to rise over the next couple of months as tourism traffic increases.

"It's strictly a safety thing for us to enforce," he said. "Click it or ticket, it's going to be that way."

Maine State Police, meanwhile, also is preparing for the invasion of tourists over Memorial Day weekend with extra patrols, both on the ground and in the air.

Those extra patrols will be looking for drunken and aggressive drivers, speeders, and those not complying with seat-belt and child safety seat laws, Col. Patrick J. Fleming, chief of the Maine State Police.

Lt. Gerard Madden of the State Police Troop D -- which patrols in Lincoln, Knox and Waldo counties, in addition to Interstate 295 between Brunswick and Gardiner -- said extra patrols are planed for the China and Randolph areas as well as Gardiner over the two-week campaign.

"Their focus is purely seat-belt enforcement," Madden said. "The good part about special details is they can focus on those (violations) and not get called away."

The idea, police say, is to get more people wearing their seat belts rather than to write tickets.

"It appears people are becoming a little more compliant with seat belts, particularly now that it's a primary law," Madden said. "That was a huge benefit to us."

Monmouth's Annese, who also is chairman of the Maine Chiefs of Police Association's Traffic Safety Committee, said chiefs around the state are reporting better compliance since the law went into full effect in April.

"The more voluntary compliance we have, the better we like it," he said.

Craig Crosby -- 623-3811, Ext. 433

ccrosby@centralmaine.com