HomeMy WebLinkAboutA012 - Memo to City Attorney dated April 14, 1989 from Police Chief - Liquor Enforcement in Iowa Cities APR 14;M9
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MINI
#56
TO: John Klaus, City Attorney
FROM: D. Ballantine, Chief of Police } �
DATE: April 14, 1989
SUBJECT: Liquor Enforcement in Other Iowa Cities
Officer Mike Johns contacted the below listed cities concerning their
involvement in liquor law enforcement.
1. Newton: He talked with a Det. Gutherie who advised that they do
not have a large number of drinking establishments; therefore, they
don' t seem to have much of an enforcement problem concerning underage
people.
2. Waterloo: A Capt. Beener advised that Waterloo does not have an
.ordinance that prohibits minors from being on the premises, and they
do not routinely check their liquor license establishments, only on a
complaint basis. He stated that he was not sure what kind of a
problem they have concerning underage people being served in that they
do not have the manpower to go out and walk the premises, and instead
they rely on the bar owners an their doormen to keep underage people
out. He further stated that his department had not cited any
establishments for violations within the last year. He concluded by
saying that this issue was not being addressed by any proactive
enforcement from their department.
3 . Dubuque: The assistant chief stated the only time that they check
liquor license establishments is shortly after renewal of their liquor
licenses. They send plainclothes officers in at that time, but have
no other routine procedure for checking the establishments. They also
rely predominately on bar owners and their doormen to discourage
minors from being on the premises. He admits he is not sure how
effective they are in that process as they do have a large vandalism
problem and receive a lot of residential complaints related directly
to the areas where the student population tends to congregate. He
advised they are trying to combat the situation through high
visibility vehicle patrol rather than walking the liquor license
establishments. He does know that they have a large number of people
that are able to obtain alcohol carry it back to the campus area where
it is consumed. However, they do not become involved past that, as it
is handled by campus security.
4. Storm Lake: Capt. Hoy advised that they had no ordinance
prohibiting minors from being on the premises. He said they have a
major problem with minors being served, not only in the bars, but from
other licensees that sell liquor. They ran a so-called sting operation
approximately one month ago and filed charges on 17 businesses for
selling alcohol to minors. He stated that at least three to four of
those were bars. They do not have a routine bar check program;
however, they are planning to start one in the very near future. They
had not done it earlier, but after the sting operation, they saw that
they did have a problem and were taking steps to try to ease it. He
advised that he wished they had an ordinance prohibiting minors on the
premises, as it would make enforcement much easier.
5 . Davenport: Lt. Blaylock advised that approximately two months
ago, they felt they were beginning to have a larger problem with
underage people consuming in liquor license establishments. They
also ran a sting operation and cited 20 people for possession of
alcohol under state code. He advised that they lost most of those
cases in court as the underage people in the liquor license
establishments merely had the drinks in front of them rather than
being able to testify that they were in their hands, and therefore,
possession was unable to be proved. He said that the police department
went to the City Council and asked for an ordinance similar to ours,
and it has passed the first two readings and is due to come up for the
third reading soon and will come into effect.
6. Sioux City: Officer Link advised that they do not have a
proactive enforcement program as far as alcohol violations are
concerned.
7. Marshalltown: Chief Wilkinson advised that they have a large
problem with underage people obtaining alcohol. All areas of their
alcohol enforcement were up at least 1260 or even higher and that he
is very much in favor of an ordinance similar to ours prohibiting
minors from even being on the premises. They do not have specific
officers assigned to alcohol enforcement, but they attempt to some
enforcement on a routine basis.
8. Iowa City: As I discussed at the Council meeting a few weeks ago,
Iowa City has no ordinance prohibiting minors on premises ; however,
they do have a problem with underage people drinking and a fairly
large problem in the handling of crimes that are directly related to
those young people being in the bars, particularly the estimated
$10,000 yearly spent in the downtown area replacing trees and shrubs,
etc. that are damaged from people leaving those establishments. They
have only one officer assigned to routinely check bars, and he only
does that 2 hours a night. Beyond that, they have no routine
enforcement.
9. Cedar Falls: Also, as I stated at the Council meeting a couple
of weeks ago, Cedar Falls recognizes they have a large drinking and
underage drinking problem that for the past few days, prior to us
talking to them, they had held over their evening shift to check the
establishments, and although they found a lot of underage people in
the bars with drinks in front of them, they were unable to file any
charges due to the limitations on possession.
DB/bt