When e‑Government is Opposed by Unwilling Clients; Case Studies on e‑Enforcement

Abstract

e‑Enforcement is the use of electronic tools in law enforcement. We examined the consequences of using two forms of e‑Enforcement for several aspects in the relation between government and inspectees: weigh‑in‑motion and the digital tachograph. Inspectees are 'obligated clients' of enforcement. They usually do not appreciate government enforcement and have strong incentives for 'strategic behaviour' or 'game playing'. Our research shows that, contrary to our expectations, e‑Enforcement does not reduce all strategic behaviour and in fact even stimulates some new forms of it. However, e‑Enforcement turns out to be successful when embedded in interaction processes and when providing added value for the inspectees.