Stores cited for selling to teens Stores cited for selling to teens (January 02, 2004)

Police team up with minors to expose illegal alcohol, tobacco sales

By Jon Wiener

Sellers beware: Mountain View is cracking down on sales of alcohol and tobacco products to underage customers.

An undercover sting by police resulted in citations for over a dozen different retailers for selling to minors, and the city is exploring ways to strengthen punishments for owners of those businesses.

Police are targeting the more than 100 Mountain View stores that sell liquor or tobacco. This fall, police cited seven out of 68 stores for selling cigarettes to minors in the presence of an officer and eight out of 54 for selling alcohol.

The idea to focus on owners of these businesses was prompted in part by the results of the police department's renewed alcohol and tobacco "decoy" operations. As part of the operation, one or two police "Explorers," volunteers from local high schools, walk into a store at the same time as an undercover officer and try to purchase a product. A uniformed officer waits outside.

The police took pains to make sure the Explorers look their age. School Resource Officer Lloyd Curns said he would not allow an Explorer to wear lots of make-up or have facial hair while participating in the operation.

"We're not trying to trap anybody," said Curns. "We want them to think that every time a youth comes in, there's a cop with them."

"They have to be under the age of 20, they have to carry their own ID or none at all, and they must answer truthfully all questions about their age," said Anthony Barabas of Alcoholic Beverage Control of Santa Clara County. ABC reviews the minors who are used as decoys.

Businesses cited for selling alcohol to minors can be assessed fines of between $750 and $3,000, and repeat offenders are subject to having their liquor licenses suspended or revoked by ABC, said Barabas.

Tobacco violations, on the other hand, result in a citation and fine for the clerk but no further punishment.

"The numbers indicate that it continues to be a problem, and we're trying to get that to zero, so that minors can't buy alcohol and tobacco in Mountain View," said City Council member Matt Neely.

Neely, an assistant principal at Mountain View High School, is a member of the council's Youth Services Committee, which met Dec. 1 to discuss the prospect of using conditional use permits to put more responsibility for these violations on business owners. The committee forwarded several proposals to the council, which will discuss them at its Jan. 13 meeting.

Since tobacco sales are not subject to the same licensing procedures and regulations as sales of alcohol, the committee recommended attaching conditions to land use permits as a way to punish violators. One such proposal would require first-time offenders to specially train sales clerks and provide documentation that each employee has been properly trained. Another would make it possible to revoke a use permit after repeated violations.

"I really hope we can get something that moves away from just the clerk being fired," said Neely. "This was kind of creative to go to the use permit."

Local high school and college students interviewed said it is common knowledge which stores sell to minors. Their responses indicate the city's efforts to prevent them from buying alcohol and tobacco may be Sisyphean.

"If I can't buy it in Mountain View, I can just go to Palo Alto," said one 19-year old Foothill College student.

An even greater number of students said that they rely primarily on "shoulder tapping," a practice where an acquaintance of the minor or even a random person will purchase something and give it to the minor outside the store, often for a commission. City officials and police officers say they are aware of this practice but that it is much more difficult to cite someone for this type of violation.

Businesses, too, say they are constantly struggling to prevent minors from breaking the law. Those cited described the incidents involving police as isolated cases. Jerry Koh, the owner and manager at Bailey's Plaza Liquors on North Shoreline Boulevard, said that he goes over the policies for carding with new employees.

A clerk at another store that was cited, who did not want to be named, showed the Voice a stack of 20 fake IDs he had confiscated from customers. Most were driver's licenses that were registered as invalid when swiped through a reader. Others were legitimate forms of ID but their owners could not repeat the information on them.

He said he tries to remain as vigilant as possible, but, "If the person is telling me their birthday and address correctly, and the card is legitimate, there's not much else I can do."

Recently, when he refused to sell beer to a 23-year-old customer because the clerk noticed three minors waiting outside in a car, the customer became enraged, using loud, profane language and kicking over merchandise racks.

But all the efforts of the city and businesses are not stopping minors from buying alcohol and tobacco throughout the city. "Kids will go where they can," said Neely. "Our goal is just to make it more difficult."

E-mail a friend a link to this story.