Starting Friday, police officers can pull you over and write you a ticket for not wearing a seat belt, but state and local law enforcement officials say they aren’t planning an enforcement blitz to greet the new law.

The revised law specifically bans police from setting up seat-belt checkpoints or writing tickets for seat-belt violations at other public safety checkpoints, such as license or sobriety checks.

It does allow officers to pull drivers over and write tickets for seat-belt violations only. The previous law allowed officers to write tickets only if they pulled a driver over for another violation, such as speeding or expired tags.

“We’re not going to go make a departmentwide, concerted effort on Dec. 9 to swoop down out there and hand out tickets,” said Sgt. Flynn Tanner, head of Richland County’s Traffic Safety Unit. “Education is the primary focus.”

South Carolina is the 13th state to upgrade to a primary seat-belt law, according to the Institute of Public Policy at the University of Missouri. Tennessee is the most recent state to make the switch, enacting its primary law in July last year. Washington, D.C., also has switched to a primary seat-belt law.

The Department of Public Safety already has public service announcements about the change playing on radio stations. Simultaneous news conferences are scheduled Thursday in Columbia, Greenville, Aiken, Charleston and Florence.

Department spokesman Sid Gaulden said state troopers are not getting special training for the new law’s enforcement.

“We’re not going to start off writing everybody tickets,” Gaulden said. “We’re trying to educate the public and law enforcement about what to do and what not to do.”

In Richland County, sheriff’s deputies have handed out close to 8,000 pamphlets — 4,000 in English and 4,000 in Spanish — noting the changes in the law, Tanner said.

Tanner said the revised law will not only be an adjustment for motorists but also for police officers.

“It wasn’t something that I was used to looking at,” Tanner said. “If you are not looking for it, at 35 miles per hour, then it’s pretty quick.”

In Lexington County, Sheriff James Metts is sending a memo to all deputies reminding them about the new law, and he’s asking supervisors to remind them, as well.

In Columbia, Sgt. Florence McCants said most of the police department’s efforts have been on “educating our officers of the new laws.”

“I’m sure tickets will be written, but not more than they have been in the past,” McCants said.

It will be a while before law enforcement can measure the effect of the revised law.

States that made the switch to a primary seat-belt law from a secondary law saw about a 20 percent increase in seat-belt usage, according to a study from the Institute of Public Policy.

Reach Beam at (803) 771-8405 or abeam@thestate.com.