E-Enforcement in Digital Government

Abstract

In recent years, there has been a significant rise in “e-enforcement.” E-enforcement is the use of electronic tools in law enforcement. In this article, we consider two new forms of e-enforcement which have recently been introduced in Europe. These are Weigh in Motion with Video (WIM-Vid) and the digital tachograph. WIM-Vid is a system involving sensors in the road and cameras in order to register overloading of heavy goods vehicles. WIM-Vid was developed and implemented in the Netherlands and is currently attracting international attention. The digital tachograph replaces the analogue tachograph in all heavy goods vehicles within the European Union. The machine registers drivers’ driving and rest times. In this article, we focus on the special position of the clients of e-enforcement, the regulatees. Although e-enforcement is a form of e-government or digital government, the position of the client is quite distinct. Many definitions describe e-government in terms of service delivery (Chen, 2002; Devadoss, Pan, & Huang, 2002; Finger & Pécaud, 2003; Hiller & Belanger, 2001; Ho, 2002; Moon, 2002). These descriptions feature the concept of customer focus (Devadoss et al., 2002; Finger & Pécaud, 2003; Ho, 2002). The purpose of e-government should be to satisfy these customers, whether they are ordinary citizens or parties in private sector (Finger & Pécaud, 2003). The clients of enforcement, however, are offenders or potential offenders. These clients are characterized by the fact that they do not want the service and generally exhibit uncooperative behaviour (Alford, 2002). They may, for example, actively evade the “service” of enforcement, or commit information fraud (Hawkins, 1984). In this article we will see what the distinct position of the clients of enforcement means for the effects of e-enforcement.