Anne Arundel County police joined the Maryland Highway Safety Office to crack down on motorists who still don’t wear their seat belts.

The 2011 "Click It or Ticket" campaign kicked off Monday in Maryland, even though the state has the highest safety-belt-use rates in the country at 94.7 percent, according to a police statement.

County police said officers will bolster their enforcement of seat belt laws with an emphasis on trucks and SUVs, child-safety seat violations, and nighttime hour checks.

The safety office said that in 2010, 93.6 percent of pick-up trucks and SUV operators used their seat belts in Anne Arundel County, compared to 97.5 percent of car drivers, according to the release.

Police also said in 2009, 33.1 percent of drivers and 38.5 percent of passengers killed in motor vehicle crashes throughout the state were not wearing seat belts.

Data also showed that seat belt use drops in the nighttime, police said.

“In addition to the use of seatbelts, child safety seats and booster seats are required for a child under the age of 8 unless the child is 4 feet, 9 inches tall or taller or weighs more than 65-pounds,” police said in the release.

A child under the age of 16 must be in a child safety seat or seatbelt, according to the release. In 2009, children age 15 and under accounted for 9.6 percent of all passenger fatalities and were involved in about 17,000 crashes in Maryland, according to the release.