Once the business council passes a law, it’s considered the law of the reservation. But awareness and enforcement of the law come later. The best way to create awareness is to get the word out about the law change. See Module 7 – Create a data-driven awareness campaign for more information how to do that. Strategizing with law enforcement officers, which we will cover in the next section, can also be crucial in efforts to get the law enforced in your community.
Rebecca’s Experience
Obviously, on the day the law was adopted on the Colville Reservation only a select few realized something had changed. Thankfully, the media campaign from the comment period was still running strong, so awareness of car seat safety was increasing. Yet few expected to have car seat usage enforced.
In retrospect, we should have implemented immediate media efforts–such as PSAs, posters, and billboards–informing the community of this new change in law and the consequences for drivers. We did later modify the media campaign to focus exclusively on educating the public to the consequences of failing to use appropriate car seats.