Underage Drinking: Success Stories

Cedar City, a town of 26,000 and home to Southern Utah University, is not far from Nevada and only 2 ½ hours from Las Vegas. As in many college towns, Cedar City law enforcement frequently deal with underage drinking and related problems.

In 2001, police began asking whether there was a problem with sales of alcohol to minors and began conducting compliance checks to find out. The initial round yielded successful buys at 18 of 39 stores. Though no penalties were assessed, the police did send a letter to every retailer, with a photo of all of the products their underage buyers had purchased.

During enforcement of minor-purchase laws, police discovered that employees terminated for noncompliance would sometimes get rehired elsewhere. That is, he or she would be fired for selling to a minor, only to work at another alcohol outlet. The police realized that to effectively curtail sales to minors, they needed a mechanism to keep these people out of jobs that involve selling alcohol.

Chief Robert Allinson of the Cedar City Police Department suggested adopting a policy modeled after “Beer-Handler’s Permit” programs in other communities; implementation of the policy fell to Corporal Mike Bleak. With help from the City Attorney and other officers, Corporal Bleak took the idea to City Council. To demonstrate the need for a local ordinance, the police brought every container of alcohol that their underage decoys had purchased during the compliance investigations. The decoys attended as well, to allay any concerns of deceit or trickery during the checks. “The Council was ecstatic,” says Corporal Sheldon Barney of Cedar City PD—and they passed the rule easily.

Now anyone who wants to work in alcohol sales in Cedar City must acquire a Beer-Handler’s Permit. They have 60 days from their date of hire to attend the permit class, which covers Utah laws, detecting false ID, local ordinances, and other information relevant to sales of alcohol. Once they have the permit, employees must wear it while on the job.

Of course, the permit alone is not enough to prevent sales to minors—so Cedar City follows up with vigorous compliance checks. The officers try to check every outlet at least twice yearly. Already they have seen their efforts pay off; in the last round of checks, only four persons sold to the underage decoy. Of those, three were new employees who had not yet obtained their permits. Now Cedar City Police are pushing the program county-wide, to curtail sales to minors outside town limits. Says Cpl. Bleak, “We know this isn’t going to solve the problem…but it helps.”