Editorial: Naming and shaming drink-drivers works

I'll never forget doing a night out on patrol catching drink-drivers with Rotorua police's TAG (Traffic Alcohol Group) about 10 years ago.

I was riding along with the then officer in charge of the group, Senior Sergeant Denton Grimes, when he pulled over a driver who was clearly annoyed at the inconvenience.

"Why aren't you catching killers?" the stroppy driver snapped at Mr Grimes before reluctantly giving his name and address.

Mr Grimes' response was quick and accurate.

"That's exactly what we are doing," he said.

Rotorua has had a shocking rate of drink-drivers over the years compared with other cities.

The Rotorua Daily Post has strongly campaign against it by working with the police to publish the names of everyone convicted of drink-driving in the Rotorua District Court.

The practice started in 2008 and we were the first New Zealand newspaper to introduce it. It was deemed such a good deterrent, other police districts and newspapers throughout the country copied the idea.

We know naming and shaming works. It was often the talk of the town - "Don't drink and drive, or we'll read about it in the paper". We also fielded several calls from embarrassed members of the public asking they not be named.

Police stopped the practice of supplying the names in May 2009 after a legal opinion indicated they might be breaching the Privacy Act but it was reinstated towards the end of that year after Police Minister Judith Collins stepped in.

Now police have stopped the practice again - it's not yet clear the exact reasons but they are again concerned about privacy issues, possibly given the latest problems with privacy leaks.

The practice is currently under review by Police National Headquarters and local police aren't supplying the information until the review is carried out. I'm unsure how something that's happened for five years suddenly becomes a privacy issue, but time will tell.

Take a look at our front page story today, if you haven't already, and you tell me if we shouldn't be doing all we can to ensure there are fewer drink-drivers on our roads.