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Carry Out Compliance Check Programs

The primary means to enforce minimum-age purchase laws is to conduct compliance checks of businesses that sell alcohol. Compliance checks use underage volunteers to try to gain entry and alcohol service at bars or restaurants, or buy alcohol at stores. The volunteer is directed to be truthful about his or her age, if asked, and to present legitimate ID. If the volunteer is able to buy alcohol, the server and manager are cited for violating the minimum-age purchase law. In some jurisdictions, if a clerk or bartender appropriately denies service to an underage volunteer, the alcohol board notifies the business owner and encourages the owner to congratulate and reward the employee for obeying the law.

There are a number of important factors to consider when designing a compliance investigation:

  • selecting underage volunteers who clearly look underage, and whose diverse characteristics may help to avoid bias or other factors that may influence sales rates (such as females who wear little or no makeup, casual attire, and are average height and build; or males with no facial hair, casual attire, and are average height and build;
  • training volunteers on making a purchase: how to act, what to say, and how to respond to questions;
  • selecting location, time of day, and frequency of operations;
  • choosing the type and amount of alcohol to buy; and,
  • addressing a variety of operational issues, such as deploying officers, issuing citations, recording or observing transactions, keeping records, and working with the media.

For a complete copy of an Alcohol Compliance Check Manual from the Alcohol Epidemiology Program , see the link below: http://www.epi.umn.edu/alcohol/manual/manual.pdf

Issue It is rumored that several businesses in the area do not check IDs and sell alcohol to minors.

Strategy

Assist your local law enforcement agency in conducting a “compliance check survey” to determine the number of businesses that correctly require identification and refuse service to underage buyers. This activity involves sending trained underage police cadets or other underage volunteers into stores to attempt to purchase alcohol. Create a press release to announce general compliance statistics to the public. Be sure to recognize those outlets that are obeying the law.

For additional strategies and approaches for changing policies, see the following:

What You Can Do: Community
What You Can Do: Parents
What You Can Do: Agencies
What You Can Do: Schools

References:
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L Underage Drinking in California: California Town Hall Meetings. Community Prevention Institute. March, 2006. Available at: http://www.adp.cahwnet.gov/Prevention/townhall/pdf/CA%20Underage%20Drinking%20Survey%20Data%20Report.pdf. Accessed on [08/25/06]

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Bonnie, R.J. & M.E. O’Connell (eds). 2003. Reducing Underage Drinking: A Collective Responsibility. The National Academies Press, Washington, D.C.

A Guide to Zero Tolerance and Graduated Licensing: Two Strategies that Work. Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation. Available at:  http://www.udetc.org/documents/Guide2zero.pdf#search=%22a%20guide%20to%20zero%20tolerance%20and%20graduated%20licensing%22. Accessed on [09/06/06]

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