1 Year Study On El Paso PD Shows Results Of Shaming Drunk Drivers On Social Media

In 2024, EPPD had the idea to begin posting drunk driver mug shots in the hopes that this sort of "public shaming" might help deter the amount of drunk drivers on the road. While some might feel like this is a random thing to do, it technically has some real roots in history. Well, has it been working? A 1 year study was done on EPPD and this specific initiative to see just how effective it was.

Public Shaming In History

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Believe it or not, public shaming is a big part of history. Back in the days of the original 13 US colonies, there were two popular forms of public shaming that you may have even seen in movies or tv shows. The most common we see in media is the pillory, two planks of wood with holes for the hands and head that hold people in place. The other one was called the stocks and it was specifically for the feet, so at least you got to sit down when you were locked in it.

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The sole purpose of these torture tools was literally to publicly shame people who committed mostly minor offenses such as public drunkenness and other "annoying" crimes. The only official part of the punishment was being locked up in the town square for the public to see, but people in the town were encouraged to shame people locked in these devices by doing everything from tickling prisoners to throwing garbage or rotten food at them. Oftentimes, it was the townsfolk passing by who really escalated the punishment of those locked up.

Social Media As The Modern Pillory

When EPPD started posting public mugshots, civilian social pages began posting them as well. Every Friday, a new batch of drunk driver mugshots arrested in El Paso goes up and pages like FitFam post them for everyone to see. The goal was to see if these public mugshots and shaming would deter drunk driving. So did it work?

Well...kind of.

El Paso Drunk Drivers

A 1 year study of the whole project determined that there really wasn't a big number of difference. Drivers over the age of 31 actually did have a moderate decrease in arrests but the study showed no real effect on drivers from 21-30 years of age.

Does this mean the study was a waste of time or that it's not worth it?? Not necessarily. Clearly there was some effect and a certain age range was absolutely affected by the public shaming which means that with further time, maybe the results might continue to show more positive change. Although it is hard to determine if a higher police presence specific to drunk driving initiatives also helped to reduce the numbers, or if public shaming specifically was what caused older El Pasoans to drive a little safer.