Police Minister Judith Collins says she is considering whether photos of convicted drink-drivers should be made available to the media as a deterrent.
Police have reviewed their recent policy change that saw them stop providing lists of convicted drink-drivers to some newspapers after concerns were raised about privacy.
On Tuesday, police announced they will resume releasing the names of drink-drivers to media following a meeting with the minister.
Ms Collins said she had asked police to review their decision because she thinks offenders need to be named and shamed.
However, she believes more could be done to highlight the problem and intends to discuss with police the idea of releasing photos of convicted drink-drivers to media to act as a further deterrent.
Ms Collins says there were 36,000 convictions last year for drink-driving.
Earlier, the Ministry of Justice had said that, beyond the public gaze of the courtroom, the Privacy Act gave the individual's right to privacy precedence over the media's right to information.
Police U-turn on names
Acting Deputy Police Commissioner Michael Player told Radio New Zealand on Tuesday police may have been overly-sensitive about privacy issues when they made the decision not to issue the names.
Mr Player says he acknowledges the deterrent effect of naming drink-drivers, and public support for it to continue.
Police earlier said the information was not theirs to release and that they had taken legal advice about the privacy aspects raised by the lists of convictions.
The decision by police to provide the names to media has been labelled common sense by one newspaper.
Bernadette Courtney, editor of the Dominion Post in Wellington, says she was astonished when police stopped releasing the lists to media.
Ms Courtney says printing the names of convicted drink-drivers does act as a deterrent.
Before the change of mind by police, Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff said she had received no complaints about the release of lists of drink-driving convictions, and that she has not been involved in the decision to stop the practice.
