Californian city plans to 'shame' drunk drivers on Facebook
Huntingdon Beach, a Californian city with a high incidence of alcohol related traffic fatalities, is adopting a novel approach to keeping drunken drivers off the road – naming and shaming the culprits on Facebook.
Devin Dwyer, a local councillor has hit upon the intriguing idea of displaying mugshots of everyone who is arrested more than once for driving under the influence, to the consternation of privacy advocates.
The repeat offender shame gallery will be subject to a council vote on Tuesday but critics are already urging the authorities to reconsider the plan, arguing that it violates people’s right to privacy and will not deter habitual drunken drivers.
Attorney Randall Bertz, who specialises in DUI cases, told the San Francisco Examiner: "It will have a negative impact on relations with the community, the police department and city officials. What's next, will they have drunk drivers walk around with sandwich boards? Will it be public flogging?"
Several DUI mugshots have already been posted to the social networking site, but these were said to be exceptional cases where the suspect posed an immediate threat to the public.
In California there are no laws to prevent police departments from releasing photographs of people who’ve been arrested with several jurisdictions publishing their own, albeit short lived, walls of shame.