Mt Druitt police are helping prevent families from copping a $350 fine by handing out free, legally compliant child car restraints.

Sergeant Greg Donaldson told Deborah Knight his command were handing out more fines for unsafe child restraints than any other area in the state.

By partnering with local businesses and community groups, police were able to connect with at-risk families to replace old or secondhand seats with new ones.

“We understand the hardships that we can cause,” he explained.

“Fines can have a disproportionate effect on people who don’t earn a lot of money.

“It wasn’t solving the problem in the long term: as soon we drove away they were still left with a poor child restraint, or no child restraint, and the child was no safer.

“It just didn’t add up that we were making people spend all this money on a fine, when they could’ve spent that same sort of money on purchasing a compliant car seat.”

Click PLAY below to hear the full interview

Image: Getty