HUNTINGTON BEACH CALIFORNIA WANTS TO PUT ALL YOU LUSH HEADS ON BLAST ON FACEBOOK!

Police in a California city notorious for its drunken driving busts are considering a new tactic to stop partiers from getting behind the wheel: shaming them on Facebook.

In a proposal that has some citizens crying foul, a city official in Huntington Beach wants to begin posting mug shots of serial drunken drivers on the social networking site.

"If it takes shaming people to save lives, I am willing to do it," Devin Dwyer, the councilman behind the proposal, told The Associated Press. "I'm hoping it prevents others from getting behind the wheel and getting inebriated."

Dwyer initially wanted to post pictures of every beach bum busted for driving under the influence, but backed off that idea.

He said he initially came up with the idea for the e-wall of shame after the local paper stopped publishing arrest logs.

Huntington Beach, a laid-back beach town of about 200,000 known for its lively bar scene, is ranked number one out of 56 California cities of similar size for the number of alcohol-related traffic fatalities, according to the AP.

In 2009, 195 people were killed or injured and there were 1,687 DUI arrests.

Drunken driving laws are aggressively enforced – a couple of DUI mug shots have already been posted on the city's Facebook page.

"There is a saying: Come to Huntington Beach on vacation, leave on probation," attorney Randall Bertz, who specializes in DUI cases, told The AP.

But many in the police department are unhappy about the plan because they feel it might turn off locals who have been using the Facebook page to send in crime tips.

"Law enforcement is not about public shaming," police spokesman Lt. Russell Reinhart said.

Bertz, a former police officer, agreed that putting pictures of people who have been arrested, but not tried and found guilty, of drunken driving might rub some townies the wrong way.

"What's next, will they have drunk drivers walk around with sandwich boards? Will it be public flogging?" Bertz said.

Connie Boardman, a Huntington Beach councilwoman who opposes the idea, said posting the photos wouldn't do any good.

"People who habitually drink and drive are alcoholics and are not going to be shamed by this," she told The AP. "But their parents and their spouses would be mortified."

Huntington Beach isn't the first city in the U.S. to propose using Facebook to stop drunken drivers.

Last spring, police in Evesham Township, N.J., initially posted every DUI arrest mug shot on its Facebook page until a county prosecutor shut it down after four months.

The Honolulu police department's program developed a huge following and spawned a Facebook fan page, but the plug was pulled in March without an explanation.

California law allows the police department to release photos of people who have been arrested, so the police department shouldn't face any lawsuits claiming breach of privacy if the plan is approved.

The Huntington Beach City Council is set to vote on the plan on Tuesday.

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