The Responsibility Project^®. Exploring what it means to do the right thing

Public Intoxication: Shaming Drunk Drivers

12 Comments

February 19, 2008 by Kathy McManus

If you want to send a message, the old saying goes, use Western Union.

In Arizona, authorities who want to send a message to drunk drivers are using public humiliation, by posting the drivers’ photos on a website and on huge highway billboards with this scarlet letter taunt: Drive Drunk…See Your Mug Shot Here.

Maricopa County Attorney Andrew Thomas is the driving force behind the shaming project. Its sobering website stopduiaz.com, includes the names, mug shots, and blood alcohol levels of offenders, as well as stories about the victims they killed or harmed.

Does the tactic hold drunk drivers responsible for their actions, or hold them up to public ridicule?

"There are potential offenders who can be deterred by simple embarrassment or shaming," Thomas told the Arizona Republic newspaper. Tackling drunk driving, he said, requires “new and effective ways.”

There’s no argument that drunk driving should not be tolerated. An average of 11 people die each week in Arizona in alcohol-related traffic accidents.

But critics question the practice of shaming people who have been punished by the judicial system. A spokeswoman for Mothers Against Drunk Driving (M.A.D.D.) praised the website for giving voice to victims, but objected to the aspect of public ridicule, saying “M.A.D.D. would not want to be involved in calling out offenders. We are interested in research and science-based activities proven to stop drunk driving.”

Tell us what you think—will public shaming teach other drivers to be more responsible? Should authorities attempt to shame thieves, drug dealers, crooked politicians and others into law-abiding, responsible citizens as well?

12 Comments

What do you think? Leave a comment

• February 19, 2008 by Dorothy Gardiner

  Personally I think drunk driving is bad but I don't think we should hang posters of any sorts of the offenders - first of all, there are too many to hang. If we are to shame visually someone than we should show the faces of child molesters and perverts. These are the people that should be shamed and ridiculed.

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• March 8, 2008 by Sandy

  I doubt this is a deterrent to drunk driving...when a drunk person gets behind the wheel, they think they are OK to drive. Judgement is impaired. If the thought of possibly killing someone doesn;t stop tem, would a billboard?

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• March 22, 2008 by terrance tattrie

  Mr. Thomas needs to leave his ego out of this. This billboard program is not going to stop an alcoholic from driving impaired. What it will do is completely humiliate the innocent families of these people. It could cause divorce or suicide or kids being picked on and bullied in school. Alcoholism is a disease. It needs to be treated like one.

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• March 22, 2008 by S. Wade

  Posting a bulletin with someone's face just because they drove drunk is a good way to show how childish society is these day. Terrance you are SOOOOO, right! I agree with you 100%!

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• April 1, 2008 by Mary Duval

  Not all people made to register are child molesters or violent rapists and are publicly shamed daily on public registries. So why not drunk drivers who kill our children daily when they get behind the wheel? In Indiana there is one town which puts dead beat parents who owe child support on pizza box lids..so why stop there? Lets put fast drivers with speeding tickets on billboards or politicians who commit crimes or those who write bad checks...if we don't watch it someday we will all be on some type of registry or billboard our names plastered to shame.

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• April 11, 2008 by Kristie Votaw

  I actually went and checked out this website before I decided whether I agreed with it or not. Parts of it are fine. There's a page with pictures of victims, although there were only two at the time I checked it, and this was the most touching page of all. The other cases are split up into felonies and misdemeanors. A lot of the people charged with felonies are only pictured as a cartoon in a jail cell, while all of the misdemeanors I checked had their actual pictures. The cases where someone was killed or severely injured and the defendant was sentenced to prison, sure put them on the website, but not on billboards. As far as the misdemeanors go, why not make a website for people who shoplift a $3 tube of lipstick, too! Granted, drunk driving and stealing makeup is nowhere near one and the same, and I don't mean it as so. The website is actually not a bad idea, I just think they should be a little more selective as to the content that they include in it.

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• June 25, 2008 by James Allard

  As mentioned in another comment on this page, when one's judgment is impaired, whether or not they even will be shamed remains to be seen. The "however" comes when I think about how one can be shamed when it is a matter of public record. I am sure that somewhere there is a website that allows me to see the men that ran Enron. Do they feel shame? Wasn't that the whole point of releasing the movie "Enron: The Smartest Guys In The Room," or, for that matter, "Sicko" or "Fahrenheit 911," to bring shame onto the parties that the filmmakers believed should be shamed? I guess that rather than having authorities trying to shame the guilty they should be more concerned with prosecuting them.

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• August 22, 2009 by Becky Cooper

  I suspect that the heavy duty offenders already have self-esteem so low that additional shaming wouldn't have a huge impact. It would be better to accomplish something practical like making it harder for them to obtain alcohol. For example, after a DUI conviction, a "DUI chip" could be implanted in their driver's license, making them ineligible for the lawful purchase of alcohol. A law could be passed to make it illegal to sell alcohol to ANYONE without running their license through a credit card type scanner to check for the chip. If the offender gets past the barrier and drives drunk again, the license should be revoked permanently--NO EXCEPTIONS. They can always get to work on public transportation.

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• January 22, 2010 by Earl Shoop

  I'm not a fan of billboards - burgers, banks or bums. Becky has an idea worth exploring. The folks at M.A.D.D. have been doing some good thinking on the issue for years. Hmmm.. maybe those convicted of DUI could do community service, like speaking to high-schoolers about their experiences in joint presentations with MADD? They should tell what efforts they are making to avoid repetition. They need help to see themselves worthy of good health and stop poisoning themselves.

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• May 14, 2010 by medical assistant

  This is such a great resource that you are providing and you give it away for free. I enjoy seeing websites that understand the value of providing a prime resource for free. I truly loved reading your post. Thanks!

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• June 8, 2010 by Pasquale Bottiglieri

  I have been fortunate enough to have had years of experience that have given me front line experience with this question, that is, public humiliation of persons who are or have been guilty of driving while impaired by alcohol.

  As an EMT I First Responder, I saw more vehicle accidents involving "drunk driving" than I care to remember, but one in particular stands out in my mind. As we assisted in the hopeless task of assisting an MD in providing medical attention to a young lady who had experienced fatal injuries, the driver, her boy friend, still drunk but finally aware of what had happened, came crashing through the door of the ER with two Policemen attempting to hold him back. She had already passed on due to multiple severe injuries incurred by going head first through the windshield (no seat belt) and experiencing the full impact of a 60+ mph collision with a brick wall.

  As a Vocational Instructor at a County Jail, I by chance happened to be standing in the intake area and overheard a conversation between a Police Officer and a man who was lying on a bed in one of the holding cells. The man was waking up from a drunk and was yelling at the Officer. The Officer advised him that he needed to be aware that he had had an accident, that it was a serious accident, that, in fact, he had caused the death of three people, a woman and her young son and an elderly woman who was in the back seat. After a short period of screaming, there was dead silence in the room and the Officer closed and latched the door. She, the Officer, stood for a moment, sobbed briefly, then stepped over to the desk to file the necessary paperwork.

  As an Addictions Counselor, I dealt with a young man who, after multiple alcohol related driving offenses, was finally given the choice by a judge the quit drinking entirely or do some state time. After attending the 28 day program in which I was employed, he committed another similar offense and was sentenced to three years in a State Penitentiary.

  People who drive under the influence of alcohol or any chemical that impairs their ability to do it safely are a serious threat to their own well being and to the well being of every other driver or pedestrian they come in contact with. Those people need to be taken off the road by any means necessary including, where it is administered after exhausting every other means, public embarrassment and/or imprisonment.

  I want to close with yet another comment that the best time to start the process of keeping impaired drivers off the road is as early as possible in the educational system. Teachers need to be able to step out from under the standards long enough to discuss this subject along with several others especially with those students who are growing up in households in which alcohol use is taken for granted, and the parents of those students need to be directly involved in those discussions.

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• December 13, 2010 by erarneLelitty

  Do i have to get an auto insurance when i buy a used car? or else, they don't sell the car to a person who doesn't have an auto insurance? I currently have a lease car that will be returned this January next year. But i want to get a used car soon so that i can work on the car, but i won't be driving it around. The car will be in my garage until i return the lease car and get an auto insurance. I live in Philadelphia, PA Any suggestion?

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