Special plates may be required for those with OUI convictions

By John McElhenny, Associated Press, 05/23/01

BOSTON -- Adeline Rotondo says it seems like every week that she's reading about a repeat drunken driver hitting an innocent pedestrian or driving into a tree.

So Rotondo wholeheartedly endorses any measure to cut down on drunk driving and help police do their jobs -- including requiring convicted drunken drivers to have special "OUI" license plates.

"It's like having a sex offender in your neighborhood," said Rotondo, a mother of two from Revere. "People should know about it."

Lawmakers on Thursday will consider the proposal, which would require anyone convicted at least twice within 10 years of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol to have the license plates.

Bill Redfern, a supervisor at a Boston financial firm, called the proposal "archaic."

"It's like the 'scarlet letter,"' said Redfern, 28. "If you're going to punish somebody, punish him, but don't make a spectacle out of him."

Other states including Ohio, Oregon and Minnesota have experimented with special striped license plates for repeat drunken drivers.

Sen. JoAnn Sprague, R-Walpole, said it's time Massachusetts joined the list. Sprague, who is sponsoring the proposal, said the special plates would allow police to keep a closer eye on repeat drunken driving offenders.

More important, she said it could raise the stakes for irresponsible behavior and dissuade some people from drinking and driving.

"If they don't want a license plate," Sprague said, "they should not drive under the influence of drugs or alcohol."

Sprague's proposal would also increase the minimum penalty for second convictions from 60 days in jail to one year. The license plate itself would say "OUI-2" and then the driver's initials, Sprague said, though the Registry of Motor Vehicles would have to work out the details.

John Roberts, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Massachusetts, said such a license plate would stigmatize not only the offender, but also any family member who drove the car, whether a spouse or a teen-age daughter or son on a date.

"We thought the public pillory on Boston Common had been done away with for good reason," Roberts said. "You hope that the American criminal justice system has gone beyond this."

Sprague's embarrassing punishment has a literary pedigree. In Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel "The Scarlet Letter," Puritans forced Hester Prynne to sew a scarlet "A" on her dress as punishment for having a child out of wedlock.

Lawmakers in Georgia are considering a proposal to force anyone convicted of driving under the influence to display a scarlet letter "D" for "drunk" in their rear windshield. The bill calls for the letter to be at least 6 inches wide and 9 inches tall.

In Lebanon, Pa., a judge in January ordered a woman who admitted stealing facial and hair products from a grocery store to wear a "convicted shoplifter" badge whenever she entered a store.

Mike Crouse, 28, an accountant from Westwood, wondered where it would all lead.

"If you commit a robbery, what are they going to do, put 'R-O-B' on your license plate?" he said.

In modern-day Massachusetts, 151 years after Hawthorne set his novel in Salem, Sprague's proposal has little support in the Legislature.

Massachusetts is known for its civil libertarian streak, which is evident in the Legislature's refusal to allow police to stop drivers for not wearing their seat belts, said Barbara Harrington, executive director of Mothers Against Drunk Driving in Massachusetts.

Seventeen other states allow such police stops.

That bodes ill for "scarlet letter" license plates, Harrington said.

"We have such a strong civil liberties environment that the idea of marking people and setting them up for a police stop is not going to work," she said.