THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, November 16, 1995 TAG: 9511160253
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MIKE MATHER, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 54 lines
Beginning next month, underage drinkers supplying fake IDs to store clerks may be handing the bogus credentials to undercover ABC agents.
On Dec. 6, the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control will revive the ``Cops in Shops'' program that stations plainclothes agents in stores to nab underage drinkers.
The agents will be posing as clerks and customers, said Robert W. Chapman Jr., an ABC spokesman.
``Our main goal is basically to prevent underage drinking and to limit the number of places underage consumers can get alcohol,'' Chapman said.
The program is something of a departure from normal ABC enforcement. Typically, the agency investigated sales to underage drinkers after the fact, and then prosecutes the seller and buyer. With ``Cops in Shops,'' the agency will be working with the establishments.
``We wanted to do something proactively to prevent underage drinking,'' Chapman said. ``We used to enforce the laws by arresting the underage drinker and the clerk. Now, instead of working against them, we're working with them.''
Modeled after a California program, ``Cops in Shops'' started in South Hampton Roads in March, but the grant from National Highway Traffic Safety Administration ran out.
The program will gear up again for the holiday season with fresh funding, Chapman said. The grant pays agents overtime if they want to work during their time off. That means agents aren't being taken away from traditional enforcement duties and the ABC's budget isn't depleted.
Chapman said the program's initial months produced dozens of arrests. The number of arrests dropped in subsequent months after word got out, he said.
Participating stores are required to post signs warning that undercover officers may be posing as employees. So many stores signed up that the agency ran out of warning signs, Chapman said. More are being delivered.
Chapman said the agents can watch customers both inside and outside the stores to catch underage buyers, or older customers buying for underage drinkers. And agents are better trained than clerks at noticing bogus identification, Chapman said.
And the agents ``have the ability to go further,'' Chapman said. ``They can make an arrest or seize an ID. We don't ask the clerks to do that for their own safety.''
As many as a dozen area stores nightly will have undercover agents inside, Chapman said.
If funding is available, the program will continue year-round, Chapman said. by CNB