We wrote in passing last week about the annoyance of the new "click it or ticket" campaign in Colorado aimed at getting drivers to wear seatbelts. Apparently, it's a nationwide program.

The ACLU today denounced the program as unfairly targeting hispanics.

Federal officials defend the checkpoints, saying Hispanics are less likely to buckle up because wearing seat belts is often not the law or custom in their countries of origin.

"Click It or Ticket" campaigns aimed at the general population began nationwide last week and run through Sunday. A separate program grants money for seat belt campaigns in Hispanic neighborhoods. Both are funded by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

"In the absence of any data, I would ask why are they targeting Latinos?" said King Downing, the national coordinator for the American Civil Liberties Union's Campaign Against Racial Profiling. "Deciding to target certain areas based upon race goes right to the foundation of racial profiling.

NHTSA says the checkpoints are random in that they target one out of every ten drivers, not hispanics. We side with the ACLU director, who responds: "It's not exactly a random driver if the area that is targeted is a Latino area."

But the best line comes from Lorraine Novak, a senior regional program manager for the NHTSA.

"It's not profiling, it's targeting a specific population," Novak said.

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