Merced police receive $21,300 grant to fight alcohol-related crimes
Merced police have been awarded a $21,300 grant from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to address alcohol-related crime involving minors, according to a department press release.
Merced City Council approved the Police Department’s grant award at its Nov. 17 meeting. “This is important to the city to increase protection for youth and to shut down problem locations that have contributed to an increase in crime,” Sgt. Don King said in the release.
The grant, one of several awarded to law enforcement agencies statewide, strengthens law enforcement’s efforts by combining the efforts of local police officers and ABC agents. ABC has been awarding grants since 1995 to strengthen partnerships between ABC and local law enforcement agencies.
The program is designed to educate, prevent, intervene and punish, if necessary. Keeping alcohol away from minors is the program’s primary objective; however, other rules and regulations are also enforced in relation to businesses that possess licenses to sell alcohol. Fines, suspensions or revocations against businesses that violate the law are all possible penalties, the release said.
The grant funds will be used to pay overtime for police officers to conduct enforcement operations including minor decoys and shoulder taps. Minor decoys are operations where people under age 21 enter businesses and attempt to buy alcohol.
If the decoys are able to purchase the alcohol, police officers enter the business immediately to issue citations and to educate.
Shoulder taps are operations where persons under 21 ask adults to buy alcohol for them. If the adult agrees to buy the alcohol and gives it to the minor, the adults are then cited for the violation.
Along with enforcement operations, the grant includes an education component and inspection operations. Businesses with licenses to sell alcohol have rules, regulations and laws they must follow in order to maintain their license. Merced police will conduct education sessions and inspections with the assistance of ABC agents at these businesses. These combined efforts can help them avoid citations, fines and suspension/revocation of their license.
“There are over 130 businesses in Merced with alcoholic beverage licenses. We want them to follow the rules that they agreed to follow, and this grant funding gives us the opportunity to keep our communities safer in relation to alcohol-related crimes involving our youth,” King said in the release.
In 2014, the Merced police either cited or booked 13 people for providing alcohol to a minor; 14 minors for possession of alcoholic beverages; and seven minors for drinking and driving.
At least 12 operations are planned throughout the grant period that runs through Sept. 30. This project is part of the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control’s Minor Decoy/Shoulder Tap Grant Project, funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
This story was originally published December 4, 2014 at 6:39 PM with the headline "Merced police receive $21,300 grant to fight alcohol-related crimes."