California jurisdiction considers posting DUI mugshots on Facebook to shame arrestees
When contrasted with this idea, being tagged in an unflattering bridesmaid’s dress isn’t really so bad now, is it?
City councilman Devin Dwyer of Huntington Beach, California, is attempting to push through a proposal wherein people who have been arrested (although not yet convicted) of drunk driving would have their mugshots posted on Facebook everyone to see. The town of 200,000 residents saw 195 people killed in 2009 in alcohol related crashes, and Dwyer commented:
“If it takes shaming people to save lives, I am willing to do it… I’m hoping it prevents others from getting behind the wheel and getting inebriated.”
Ah, yes… the ends justify the means, I think that’s in the Bill of Rights! Of course, lawyers oppose the idea considering the whole lack of a conviction thing- although it should be noted that Dwyer toned down his plan to only include people with more than one DUI arrest. Civil rights professor Clare Pastore explained:
“There’s a little bit of a presumption of innocence problem… It’s not really appropriate to shame someone before they are found guilty.”
Even the cops don’t really like the idea of naming and shaming suspects before a court of law convicts them. Police spokesperson Lt. Russell Reinhart opined:
“We see no value in doing that,” he said. “Law enforcement is not about public shaming.”
This isn’t the first time a jurisdiction has considered using social media to shame people who are accused of a crime, and DUI crimes seem to really bring out the this particular urge in prosecutors. But as we noted back then, innocent people are almost always invariable subject to immeasurably unwarranted personal consequences, such as the diabetic woman who was wrongly “shamed” for a DUI in Nassau County only to be later cleared when it was revealed she had been suffering symptoms related to her diabetes when she was arrested for the crime.
Do you think the benefits of publicly embarrassing people outweigh the possibility of an innocent person suffering consequences from being wrongly named as a drunk driver? Is the use of social media by law enforcement to imply guilt ever appropriate?
[Image]
