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Sarasota News Leader December 6, 2013 OPINION Page 83 agencies as owned by a chronic litterer in an observed offense reaches $500, or if the need of monitoring. offender is issued more than two citations on the same day, the deputy would have to arrest Obviously, people on public beaches do not the scofflaw and haul him or her to jail. wear license plates on their bodies, so other beachgoers could not identify anyone they Those arrested and convicted for being egresee throwing butts onto the beach. However, gious offenders would serve their sentences the county could achieve the same result as picking up butts on the beach by hand, so as North Carolina by creating a special page on to minimize disturbance of the sand. Their the county website, called "Butt Busters." service to pay their debt to society would be Anyone observing another throwing butts on to ameliorate the awful consequences of their the beach could take a cellphone photo, then foul addiction. upload that photo to the Butt Buster "Wall of Shame." Those visiting the website could see these reprehensible, inconsiderate beachgoers who think the public beach is their personal landfill. Think that is "government overreach?" Think that will hurt tourism (certain to be an objection voiced by some county commissioners)? In fact, keeping cigarette butts off our beaches will have the opposite effect — it will encourAs in North Carolina, someone getting his or age the throngs drawn to the natural beauty her photo posted numerous times could be of our unique beaches to visit more often. identified using facial recognition software The county may no longer have the right to (yes — quelle surprise — law enforcement ban smoking on the beach. But it does have has this capability) and then monitored more the power to avoid the most significant impact closely by deputies patrolling the beaches. of allowing that smoking — the proliferation The fine for the inappropriate disposal of of filthy, cancer-causing butts that litter the toxic waste on our beaches? Try $50 per sand. Only our tourism economy hangs in the butt. Even better, if the aggregate fine for balance. % LETTERS TO THE EDITOR The Sarasota News Leader welcomes letters to the editor from its readers. Letters should be no more than 300 words in length, and include the name, street address and telephone number of the writer. Letters should be emailed to Letters@SarasotaNewsLeader.com, with "Letter to the Editor" in the subject line. Letters actually printed will be selected based on space available, subject matter and other factors. We reserve the right to edit any letters submitted for length, grammar, spelling, etc. All letters submitted become the property of The Sarasota News Leader.