Time was, daily newspapers (ask your grammies what those were, kiddies) printed the names of people arrested of driving under the influence. However, with printing costs having skyrocketed as quickly as print readership has dwindled, such space-intensive roundups have gone the way of TV listings, movie times and entertainment calendars. So, to fill the void, the Huntington Beach Police Department is considering turning to social networks like Facebook and Twitter to publicly shame the allegedly blotto.
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After police chief Kenneth Small told the Huntington Beach City Council Monday night about the launch of Facebook and Twitter pages to keep the community informed about local crimes and public safety updates, Councilman Devin Dwyer suggested posting the names of DUI arrestees online as well.
Small then indicated the department will work with the city attorney to determine if there are no legal issues with posting the names of the innocent-until-proven-guilty on the sites.
His cop shop, which released a report in January indicating Surf City has a significant problem with drunken drivers, has noticed a spike in DUI-related crashes of late, according to the chief.
Whaddya think? Good idea?
OC Weekly Editor-in-Chief Matt Coker has been engaging, enraging and entertaining readers of newspapers, magazines and websites for decades. He spent the first 13 years of his career in journalism at daily newspapers before “graduating” to OC Weekly in 1995 as the alternative newsweekly’s first calendar editor.