Booze Sting Ensnares 3 Menlo Park Businesses

MENLO PARK, CA — A Peninsula booze sting resulted in three citations, Menlo Park police said.

The citations were issued Friday during a California Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) decoy operation in which a supervised minor attempted to purchase alcohol from six Menlo Park businesses, police said in a news release.

The businesses were not identified in the news release.

The clerks face a minimum fine of $250, and/or 24 to 32 hours of community service for a first violation.

The businesses face consequences too, police said.

“ABC will pursue administrative action against the alcoholic beverage license of the business where alcohol was sold to a minor,” police said in a statement.

“That may include a fine, a suspension of the license, or the permanent revocation of the license.”
ABC conducts compliance checks statewide to reduce the availability of alcohol to minors, police said, noting that “statistics have shown that young people under the age of 21 have a higher rate of drunken driving fatalities than the general adult population.”

Minor decoy operations have been conducted by local law enforcement throughout the state since the 1980’s.

When the program first began, the violation rate of retail establishments selling to minors was as high as 40 to 50 percent. When conducted on a routine basis, the rate has dropped in some cities to as low as 10 percent or even below.

In 1994, the California Supreme Court ruled unanimously that use of underage decoys is a valid tool of law enforcement to ensure that licensees are complying with the law.

Funding for this program was provided by a grant from the California Alcoholic Beverage Control through the department’s Alcohol Policing Partnership Program.

ABC is a Department of the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency.