Let the buyer beware.
Area cops are teaming up to curb liquor sales to minors.
The East Lansing Police Department, Meridian Township Police Department and Ingham County Sheriff’s Department kicked off their new Spotlight program Wednesday afternoon at Spartan Sports Den, 1227 E. Grand River Ave.
The program allows police to work with liquor retailers to deter minors from purchasing alcohol.
Spotlight is funded by a grant from the Michigan Office of Highway Safety Planning.
Undercover officers will be stationed in participating establishments, looking for minors who try to purchase alcohol. Officers also will be positioned outside the establishments watching for adults who purchase for minors.
“Students will agree, too, that we don’t want to have any tragedies and we certainly don’t want to have any deaths because of alcohol because of underage drinking,” East Lansing police Chief Louis Muhn said. “Hopefully they’ll be supportive of this type of initiative.”
Police also participated in the Cops and Shops program in 1996. In the first month of the program, nine people were arrested for using false IDs, 11 were arrested for urinating in public, 13 were arrested for possessing alcohol and four were arrested for furnishing alcohol to minors.
The new program is identical to the Cops and Shops program, which was discontinued when it ran out of funding.
“We’ve had good success with the Cops and Shops program,” Muhn said. “Anytime that you have grant money available to target underage drinkers purchasing alcohol, it is incumbent on law enforcement to take advantage of that because it is a community issue and concern.”
Signs will be displayed in the windows of establishments that are participating in the efforts. Police say the signs will serve as deterrents.
“By doing it across the three jurisdictions, we don’t want people to think that this is just going to be displaced,” Meridian Township police Chief Gary Gibbons said. “We want to deal with the issue and not have it just slide around to different jurisdictions.”
Those under the age of 21 who attempt to purchase alcohol can be fined and jailed.
Fines and jail time increase for minors who have previously been convicted for attempting purchase. Adults who purchase alcohol for minors can be fined up to $1,000.
“Our ultimate impact is to make people think twice prior to purchasing alcohol for minors,” East Lansing police Officer Dan DeKorte said. “We want to educate the minors also.
“Many think it isn’t a harmful effect to use a fake ID. It is a violation and we want people to be aware that we’ll be out there and we are taking a no-tolerance approach.”
Chris Fata, an owner of Spartan Sports Den, said underage drinkers will think twice before using a fake ID with the new program.
“It deters underage drinking, people from attempting to come into my establishment and try to use a fake ID,” he said. “When they come in they might be giving their ID to me, or they might be giving it to Officer Dan DeKorte in plain clothes.
“The punishment is quite a bit more severe if they are caught by one of the officers.”
Civil engineering senior Mike Minna is skeptical about the benefits of the program.
“People who want to drink, regardless of the system, are going to try to do it,” he said. “More (of) them will get caught now. It might curb some of the people that are hesitant about using a fake ID, but people that are already doing it will continue since they got away with it, until they get caught.”
