Texas DA Names & Shames on Twitter

A Texas DA has started to use Twitter to name and shame drunk drivers

With New Year’s Eve around the corner, the customary array of ads and public service announcement aim to ensure that party-goers do not sit behind the wheel after a night of drinking. But authorities in Texas have decided to take a controversial step in order to stop drunk driving and are now using Twitter to shame those who are charged with drinking under the influence (DUI). The District Attorney (DA) for Montgomery County will now start publishing the names of both offenders and suspects in Texas who have yet to be formally charged, so as to shame them in the world of micro-blogging.

But how ethical is the practice of using Twitter to publicly humiliate people who may not actually be guilty of any crime, and is this any better than the Medieval practice of using tar and feathers to shame citizens? Some civil rights activists think that the DA’s move will lead to a slippery slope, with Twitter used to presume that people are guilty before proven innocent. In fact, the publication of people suspected of DUI offences on Twitter has been tried before in other states, with very mixed results. For example, a woman from New York had her name published in a Tweet as a form of public humiliation, after she was suspected of a DUI offence. In the end, however, it turned out that the female driver had not been drunk behind the wheel at all. Instead, the woman suffered from a form of diabetes which impaired her ability to drive a vehicle. Yet even though this had surfaced, her reputation was already in tatters, thanks to the DA’s Twitter-based shaming.

But none of this seems to bother Montgomery County’s DA. The Texas jurisdiction will begin posting the names of absolutely everyone arrested on a DUI offence, regardless of the fact that they may still be exonerated in court.