some real law enforcement

On the way home from work this evening I heard a commercial that caught my attention. Maryland and Virginia cops are -- gasp! -- cracking down on drunk drivers (which they always are if you believe the hype). But this one said that statistics show that a drunk driving conviction in these two states will cost somewhere between $5,000 and $20,000. Needless to say I was a little surprised. And also needless to say, I took note to stay off the roads after drinking anything or even sniffing alcohol. That's a penalty with teeth.

Well, maybe. After thinking about it, I suspect they're talking about lost wages and court costs and stuff, not actual fines. After all, a DUI around here results in an automatic license suspension (I think it costs good money to get it active again), hefty fines, jail or community service time, and the list probably goes on. Add all that stuff up and, yeah, you're gonna lose some money there, especially if you can't drive to work.* So even if you don't have to shell out a few grand up front, you're going to lose it when all those other things start kicking in.

But the good part of this is at least the cops are speaking a language people understand. If they go off on the moral tangent, which should matter but in today's society doesn't, or start talking about the long-term effects of a DUI conviction on one's record, folks aren't going to connect enough to care. It's too easy to ignore abstract consequences like that. But if they threaten to ruin someone's life for the short term then they'll get an audience fast. I think that's how penalties ought to work. For serious and incredibly stupid offenses that are indefensible, make the punishment so unbearable that nobody would dare risk breaking the law lest they get caught and wish they were dead.

History is on my side here. Take the colonial witchcraft craze, for example. People were scared to death to even appear to be friendly with animals, be seen in the wrong places or with the wrong people, etc. Was it because they hated being called a witch? No, it was because they hated the certain suffering and death that would come as a result of being called a witch. The consequences were severe enough to stamp out even everyday activities that had been commonly accepted. The Inquisition of the Middle Ages is another example of the potential penalty being harsh enough to cause folks to greatly alter their lifestyles in a short amount of time to avoid it.

Even today this is evident, though unfortunately not often in the law enforcement arena. Political correctness is one obvious example. Forget about the intent or actual results of any words or actions, people aren't going to do something if they know they'll probably cripple or lose their career over it. Or consider sports. Why have the miniscule fines and suspensions failed to deter moronic behavior like brawling or doing drugs? Because the penalty isn't great enough to get players' attention. It doesn't matter if they get caught if their game or their life isn't significantly hampered for it.

The conclusion is clear. If law enforcement officers want something to stop, they need to not only present a significant threat of nabbing any offenders but also ratchet up the cost of doing business. They don't just need to make the consequences greater than the rewards, they need to make them so many times greater that people won't even consider trying to skirt the law. The penalty should be so far beyond "reasonable" that it's scary to even think about.

There are two basic necessities to any effective rule: a measurable chance of getting caught when breaking it and a severe penalty for getting caught. Take away one or both of those and the rule becomes meaningless.

* A guy I know at work got burned recently on that and got a waiver to drive to and from work but that's all. From what I know, he wasn't even allowed to do so much as stop and buy groceries. I guess the cops expected others to do that for him or something. But at least he could get to work.