Five out of 19 Carson City businesses were cited last week during a sheriff's department alcohol sales compliance check, a deputy said Thursday.
Servers at T's Tavern, Javelins, Las Palmitas, El Torito and the Pizza Factory were cited April 6 after the Carson City Sheriff's Department conducted an alcohol compliance check using two 16-year-old female decoys, said Deputy Jarrod Adams.
This was this first time three of the five businesses cited were visited.
During a compliance check, underage decoys are escorted by plain-clothes officers to area businesses that serve alcohol. Decoys order alcohol and if they are asked for identification, they turn over their real identification. If the server does not ask for ID, the deputy issues a $632 citation.
The server, and not the business, is liable for the fine.
"The goal is compliance," Adams said, noting if he had a night where no one served the decoys alcohol, that would be a good night. "We are not looking to cite people, we are looking for compliance."
Adams said compliance checks aren't the only thing decoys will be doing. Youths who ask strangers in parking lots to buy them alcohol, and strangers who buy alcohol during such "shoulder taps," are also in danger of getting ticketed.
"So if a minor asks you to buy them alcohol. Say no, because you could get cited," Adams said.
He said previous "shoulder-tap" operations have targeted adults buying for teens, but soon, the department will put plain-clothes decoys outside stores that sell alcohol to wait for minors requesting alcohol.
Overtime for these programs are paid for by a grant from the federally funded Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws project and Stand Tall Don't Fall.
For information, contact Adams at 887-2020 ex 5314 or Sgt. Darrin Sloan at 887-2020 ext. 3174.
Compliance check
Servers at the following bars were cited when the Carson City Sheriff's Department conducted an alcohol compliance check using two 16-year-old female decoys:
• T's Tavern
• Javelins
• Las Palmitas
• El Torito
• Pizza Factory