Alcohol Control and Innovative Strategies to Reduce Underage Access to Alcohol

How easy is it for a teenager to buy alcohol in your community? Communities across the nation struggle with this issue and some are more successful than others in preventing youth access to alcohol. In Green Bay compliance check results at the end of 2010 hovered around 75%. This month, after 3 months without compliance checks, our rate dropped to 33%. A 2010 survey of Green Bay area teens revealed that 70% of those had been arrested for an underage drinking offense admitted to driving after consuming alcohol.  Yes, it’s a serious problem and one we must get serious about solving. In this report I am going to talk mainly about off premise sales, primarily from convenience stores and liquor stores. I will continue the discussion of underage access to bars and night clubs in a future blog.

                The problem is not unique to Green Bay and as a result, interested people from across the nation meet annually to discuss and develop best practices. One organization in particular, the Responsible Retailers Forum (RR Forum) has done some excellent work in this area.  This April I attended the RR Forum’s annual meeting which was hosted by the State of Utah Alcohol Control Board in Park City. I have to say this is one of the most beautiful places I have ever seen. The mountains and the accommodations were indescribable! 

Under the leadership of Dr. Brad Krevor, the RR Forum has built an impressive collaboration of stakeholders that have some connection to the alcohol industry or its regulation. This group includes representatives from a variety of state and local regulatory agencies, producers, distributors, prevention specialists and community advocates. The RR Forum publishes useful documents which should help anyone in the alcohol industry to conduct their business in a way that meets local community standards and complies with state and local laws. Some of their most notable work is the creation of recommended practices for both on premise and off premise sales. These documents are free and downloadable from the Forum’s website www.rrforum.org . ("Responsible Retailing Forum")

Control States

Utah is one of 18 of what are referred to as control states. After prohibition the individual states were given the option to control the sale of alcohol and became known as “control states”. Alternatively states that leave the distribution of alcohol to private industry are referred to as “open states” like my home state of Wisconsin. In the control model, the state is the sole distributor of all alcoholic beverages. Utah’s Executive Director of alcohol control describes the situation as managed conflict. He points to the agency’s competing goals; on one hand, the state has a responsibility to promote moderation and discourage excessive alcohol use. One the other hand, revenue generated from the sale of alcohol is a significant source of tax relief for the citizens. Last year’s sales were $280 million, $30 million was spent on operating costs and $100 million was returned to the general fund (Kellen).

Utah, like many other control states use revenue to promote responsible drinking campaigns. One such campaign is called Parents Empowered. The state of Utah claims this has been one of the most effective campaigns to date, offering parents a number of tools to both educate their kids and gain the knowledge needed to prevent teen alcohol access ("Parents Empowered").

Green Bay’s Efforts to Reduce Underage Drinking

Compliance checks are still the most common way to determine if businesses are checking ID’s and declining sales to underage people.  A common tactic for police and alcohol regulators is to send an underage person into a licensed establishment to see if they can buy alcohol. Under our traditional approach, both the clerk and licensee were issued citations when a sale was made to our underage buyer. Despite these efforts, our compliance rates were miserably low and citations eroded trust with shop owners who genuinely wanted to comply. Clerks were either not checking ID’s or, they were ignoring the red vertical ID’s clearly labeled “UNDER 21”. Some were overriding the cash register when prompted for a date of birth to complete the sale. Most gave the excuse that they didn’t check the ID because it was busy.  One thing was clear; the weak spot was the clerk at the point of sale but since all we were doing was issuing citations, any opportunity to modify their behavior was lost. While it is true the clerks were making the mistake, managers were setting the stage for success or failure through their store policies and training. We did not study these factors but, if we had, we would have discovered that  training, signage and policies were deficient.

In 2010 we conducted a grant funded research project. One of our conclusions was that enforcement alone was an exercise in futility. Successful strategies in other communities involved a comprehensive approach and methods we had not previously tried. It became apparent that we needed to reward positive behavior and discourage negative behavior so; we adopted a new strategy modeled after something I saw at last year’s RR Forum meeting. Under the new strategy, “Red Card-Green Card,” the licensee received a red card if they failed the compliance check and a green card if they refused the sale. Licensees that are awarded with a green card are thanked and their positive behavior is reinforced. If the licensee failed the compliance check, they received a red card they were required to attend a licensing committee meeting to explain what steps they have taken to correct the problem. When we began the project, the manager was not cited as long as they attended the meeting. Initially we did not cite the clerk but interestingly, the store managers asked us to, explaining the clerk needed an incentive to follow their policies so, we did. We received a lot of positive feedback about the new strategy and by the end of 2010 our compliance rates had jumped from about 50% to 75%, still miserable but better. We knew that there was much room for improvement.

Successful Initiatives

As a police officer I am always looking for some “plug and play” strategies we can use back home. Here are just a few that I recommend.

Respect 21

Respect 21 is a program that involves the use of mystery shoppers to test employee’s compliance with store policy. The store manager sets a policy as to what age should trigger an ID check. Retailers welcome it because the mystery shoppers are of age so there is no risk of citation or sanctions against their license. The mystery shoppers give feedback to the store through the use of the red and green cards and also compile a report showing the overall compliance of all participants. Signage, ID books and other resources are made available to participating retailers. It a program with a documented record of success and is soon to be implemented in Green Bay. This program is sponsored by Miller-Coors and is usually administrated by the local distributor. ("Underage Drinking Prevention Programs")

I caught a CUB!

One such strategy employed by Utah’s Alcohol Control is called, “I Caught a CUB”. CUB stands for Covert Undercover Buyer. What makes the CUB strategy unique is that aside from the penalty, there is an incentive for clerks to check ID’s and decline the sale. If the clerk asks for ID and declines the sale the clerk receives a $50 reward. The store manager also receives the award for creating an environment for success. This combined with other initiatives has boosted Utah’s compliance rate to 96%! 

The Brown Jug Model

Another program which began with the support of a chain of liquor stores in Alaska is called the Brown Jug. The Brown Jug Model also creates an incentive for clerks to detect underage purchases and boasts similar success rates.

        “Community Involvement - Brown Jug introduced legislation providing for a civil penalty against minors that illegally enter licensed premises, minors that solicit adults to purchase alcohol for them, and adults who order or receive an alcoholic beverage to provide to a minor. Minors that are liable for the $1,000 civil penalty are given an option to take a 2 day Prime for Life alcohol education class, a DUI victim impact class, and a sexual assault awareness class to waive $700 of the penalty. The reduced civil penalty of $300 is used to pay bonuses to employees for preventing minors from obtaining alcohol.”

The Brown Jug model has produced impressive results. Brown Jug employees have seized over 2,000 ID’s and passed 54 consecutive compliance checks ("Brown Jug Friendly Spirits").

Server Training in Wisconsin Needs Work

This issue easily justifies its own blog. Just a few basic points here. In order to obtain a license to serve alcohol in Wisconsin you need only attend a the 4 hour Wisconsin Responsible Server Class or for $16 you can take the course online. A family member took the course in 90 minutes and described it as “incredibly easy”. The online method is obviously more convenient but unfortunately there is no way to verify who is actually taking the online course. A colleague at the RR Forum related an instance where two individuals obtained their licenses through an online course and it was later learned that neither spoke English, proving that someone else had completed the online quiz for them. If we know that the weak spot in the system is the clerk, why is so little attention paid to training? I would describe this as a worst practice. ("ServingAlcohol.com")

Conclusion

Some of the best ideas in policing are either borrowed or modified from someone else. My goal in writing this blog was to share some of the best and most innovative strategies in dealing with an issue that is universal. The sale of alcohol to underage people is mainly an act of negligence and one that is highly preventable. Because it is a negligent act and not intentional one, the people whose behavior we are trying to modify respond better to incentives than punishment. That, in my opinion, is why the "I caught a CUB" program and the Brown Jug Model are so successful. While discussing these alternative strategies at the RR Forum meeting I heard this comment, “Why would you pay someone to do something they are legally required to do?” Answer: It works. At least it has in other communities so I am willing to give it a try.

I view every violation as a failure of both the seller and the regulator. Combined strategies that incorporate recommended practices outlined by the RR Forum’s research stand a better chance for success than random enforcement alone. Enforcement, an important component of compliance is but one of many tools at our disposal. Our success will be measured by lives saved, a reduction in human suffering and increased compliance rates, not by how many tickets we write.

Works Cited

"About the RR Forum." Responsible Retailing Forum. Responsible Retailing Forum, 2011. Web. 15 Apr 2011. <http://fcpr.fsu.edu/retail/index.html>.

"Eliminating Underage Drinking in Utah." Parents Empowered. Utah Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control , 2011. Web. 15 Apr 2011. <http://parentsempowered.org/>.

Kellen, Dennis. "Executive Director." DEPARTMENT OF ALCOHOLIC BEVERAGE CONTROL. State of Utah, 2011. Web. 15 Apr 2011. <http://abc.utah.gov/about/index.html>.

"Preventing Underage Access to Alcohol." Underage Drinking Prevention Programs. Miller Coors, 2011. Web. 15 Apr 2011. <http://www.greatbeergreatresponsibility.com/Alcohol-Responsibility/Retailers.aspx>.

"Responsible Retailing." Brown Jug Friendly Spirits. The Brown Jug, 2010. Web. 15 Apr 2011. <http://www.brownjugalaska.net/index.html>.

"Wisconsin Bartending License Course $16." ServingAlcohol.com. Serving Alcohol Inc., 2011. Web. 15 Apr 2011. <http://servingalcohol.com/wisconsin_bartending_license.html>.