Is that illegal?

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In Tennessee passenger cars after 62 all had seatbelts in them and trucks after 64 had them. As a former police officer I would never pull anybody over for the seatbelt law if they were driving an older vehicle because they could have their lap belt on. It's just a problem with the seatbelt law that not all officers are taught what vehicles have shoulder belts and which ones don't. I just knew because of my love of old cars.

I would think each jurisdiction and local court would have to have a policy on being pulled over for a seatbelt violation when all you have is lap belts. How did the officer know you didn't have your seatbelt on? Each court would have to deal with that situation and the judge would have to decide it there was enough probable cause/reasonable suspicion to stop that particular vehicle. The judge can't say "well, you still weren't wearing your seatbelt". That's like me stopping a car for no reason and getting lucky that they had 5 pounds of dope in the trunk!!! Then saying well they still had dope in the car.