"Driving drunk may lead to Facebook shaming" reads the headline.  A city council person in Huntington Beach, CA has sponsored legislation to post the mug shot of anyone arrested for DUI more than once in Huntington Beach.   The council person was quoted as saying, "If it takes shaming people to save lives, I am willing to do it."

In Washington, there is a push to pass a law that publicly identifies DUI offenders by requring them to purchase and display on their vehicles license plates that end in an upper case Z.  These are known as whiskey plates, and originated in Minnesota, whose legislature passed a law requiring DUI offenders to purchase and display on their vehicle(s) a license plate that begins with an uppercase W (thus the name).  Minnesota's whiskey plates are easily distinguished from their standard license plates.

The problem with these so-called collateral consequences for a DUI offender is that they do not punish just the offender, but they potentially punish the offender's family as well.  To those who support these types of collateral consequences, imagine that you are arrested for DUI, your license is suspended and you have to get rides or take public transportation for the duration of your suspension.  However, life goes on for your family and you now have to put a whiskey plate on every vehicle that you own.  So, if your child takes your car to school, it looks like he or she has the DUI under their belt.  If you and your spouse own two cars then your spouse gets a whiskey plate and wears your scarlet letter.

I think that the penalties for DUI are getting to a point that some of them no longer have a rational relationship to the offense.  Penalties for DUI offenses in Pennsylvania and most other states have increased dramatically in recent years.  I don't understand how something like a whiskey plate acts as any further deterrent than things such as potential mandatory jail time, large fines, license suspensions, etc.  If these things do not cause someone to stop and think before they drink and drive, I doubt that a special license plate will help much.  In my opinion, if a penalty does not help deter a crime, it is worthless.  

There is no current push that I know of in Pennsylvania for a whiskey plate, but there is plenty of public shaming that goes on here, from the police blotters in neighborhood newspapers to the unified court system's public docket sheets.

For the holier than thou crowd out there who like ideas like public shaming, I will share something that I learned a long time ago; unlike most other crimes, anyone can be arrested for a DUI....and that means you too.