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LOS ANGELES, California - Police in a city ranked top in California for alcohol-related traffic deaths might soon try a new tactic to keep drunk drivers off the road: electronic shaming on Facebook.
In a contentious move that has raised the hackles of privacy advocates and been met with resistance from a police department fearful of alienating residents, a councilman in Huntington Beach wants police to begin posting the mug shots of everybody arrested more than once for driving while under the influence.
"If it takes shaming people to save lives, I'm willing to do it," said Devin Dwyer, the councilman behind the proposal. "I hope it will prevent others from getting behind the wheel and getting inebriated."
Dwyer initially wanted the police department to post on Facebook photographs of everybody arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) in the bar-laden beach town just south of Los Angeles.
WALL OF SHAME
He has watered down his proposal - now only repeat offenders will feature on the virtual wall of shame - in the hope of winning support from the rest of the seven-member council.
Huntington Beach, a city of about 200 000 famed for its Surf City alias, an off-leash dog beach and a downtown packed with bars, is ranked top out of 56 California cities of similar size for the number of alcohol-related traffic deaths. In 2009, 195 people were killed or injured.
Alcohol-related driving laws are aggressively enforced and, in 2009, there were 1687 alcohol-related driving arrests.
"There is a saying: Come to Huntington Beach on vacation, leave on probation," said attorney Randall Bertz, who specialises in drunk-driving cases.
Bertz, a former police officer who has been defending such cases for 23 years, said uploading suspects' photos on to Facebook violated their right to privacy and would probably not deter habitual drunken drivers.
NO DETERRENT
"It will have a negative effect on relations with the community, the police department and city officials," he said. "What's next, will they have drunk drivers walk around with sandwich boards? Will it be public flogging?"
For its part, the Huntington Beach police department is pushing back against Dwyer's proposal. Police spokesperson Lieutenant Russell Reinhart said that, since launching its Facebook page in November, officers had found it to be a valuable way to get information to the public and soliciting tips on tough cases.
A couple of drunk-driving suspect mug shots have been posted but they were from egregious cases where police thought the public could be at immediate risk from the suspect.
Reinhart fears Facebook fans could be turned off by the routine public shaming of all repeat DUI offenders.
"We see no value in doing that," he said. "Law enforcement is not about public shaming."
Dwyer said he has received wide support from residents for his proposal, including from a woman whose husband and three children were killed in an alcohol-related crash. He's decided to push his plan forward since the local newspaper changed its editorial policy and stopped publishing arrest logs.
In a contentious move that has raised the hackles of privacy advocates and been met with resistance from a police department fearful of alienating residents, a councilman in Huntington Beach wants police to begin posting the mug shots of everybody arrested more than once for driving while under the influence.
"If it takes shaming people to save lives, I'm willing to do it," said Devin Dwyer, the councilman behind the proposal. "I hope it will prevent others from getting behind the wheel and getting inebriated."
Dwyer initially wanted the police department to post on Facebook photographs of everybody arrested for driving under the influence (DUI) in the bar-laden beach town just south of Los Angeles.
WALL OF SHAME
He has watered down his proposal - now only repeat offenders will feature on the virtual wall of shame - in the hope of winning support from the rest of the seven-member council.
Huntington Beach, a city of about 200 000 famed for its Surf City alias, an off-leash dog beach and a downtown packed with bars, is ranked top out of 56 California cities of similar size for the number of alcohol-related traffic deaths. In 2009, 195 people were killed or injured.
Alcohol-related driving laws are aggressively enforced and, in 2009, there were 1687 alcohol-related driving arrests.
"There is a saying: Come to Huntington Beach on vacation, leave on probation," said attorney Randall Bertz, who specialises in drunk-driving cases.
Bertz, a former police officer who has been defending such cases for 23 years, said uploading suspects' photos on to Facebook violated their right to privacy and would probably not deter habitual drunken drivers.
NO DETERRENT
"It will have a negative effect on relations with the community, the police department and city officials," he said. "What's next, will they have drunk drivers walk around with sandwich boards? Will it be public flogging?"
For its part, the Huntington Beach police department is pushing back against Dwyer's proposal. Police spokesperson Lieutenant Russell Reinhart said that, since launching its Facebook page in November, officers had found it to be a valuable way to get information to the public and soliciting tips on tough cases.
A couple of drunk-driving suspect mug shots have been posted but they were from egregious cases where police thought the public could be at immediate risk from the suspect.
Reinhart fears Facebook fans could be turned off by the routine public shaming of all repeat DUI offenders.
"We see no value in doing that," he said. "Law enforcement is not about public shaming."
Dwyer said he has received wide support from residents for his proposal, including from a woman whose husband and three children were killed in an alcohol-related crash. He's decided to push his plan forward since the local newspaper changed its editorial policy and stopped publishing arrest logs.
