The OJJDP Enforcing the Underage Drinking Laws Initiative supports cooperation between community organizations, enforcement agencies, youth, and other concerned citizens to change local ordinances and enforcement practices.
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After many years, prevention advocates in Kansas have finally won passage of a statewide keg registration law. The Legislature passed the law only after several communities led the way by passing local keg registration ordinances.
Kansas, like many States, sees keg parties as a major venue for underage drinking. Often, police descend on a party to find that no one will admit to knowing where the keg was purchased. As one Sheriff put it, “It’s like the keg fairy dropped them out of the sky.” Advocates have proposed keg registration several times, but until recently the bills were consistently defeated. With such difficulty at the State level, advocates began looking for local solutions.
Frustrated by the defeats, the Chief of Police in Emporia, Kansas, asked whether it was possible to have a local ordinance in the absence of State law. Teresa Walters, of Emporians for Drug Awareness, decided to find out. She first spoke with the Director of the Kansas ABC, who told her that there was no preemptive language in State statutes. She also contacted MADD’s national headquarters, and asked about strategies for getting keg registration passed. A local physician, Dr. James Barnett, called every state that had keg registration for information; officials in those states expressed wholehearted support for their keg registration laws.
The next step for Emporia was a postcard survey, which included a question about support for keg registration. More than 90% of respondents said that they supported such an ordinance! Armed with information from other States and the results of their survey, Barnett and Walters took their proposal to the County Commission, where it passed in two meetings. Once Emporia implemented the ordinance, Walters visited several counties to explain the rationale behind keg registration. New ordinances soon followed in many of those counties.