CPD goes undercover at bars, clubs
A majority of illegal IDs are borrowed or stolen, not fake.
Published Sept. 15, 2009
Plainclothes Columbia Police officers acting as employees made two arrests Aug. 21 at Shiloh Bar and Grill when they checked for false or borrowed identification.
The plainclothes officers were participating in a program called "Badges in Businesses," originally started in 1995 by the Missouri Division of Alcohol and Tobacco control, Department of Public Safety spokesman Mike O'Connell said.
"There was some federal grant money for the program and that is how it got started," O'Connell said. "The Badges in Businesses program and compliance checks are part of the Alcohol Safety and Prevention program."
Since the beginning of the 2006 fiscal year, the program has partnered with businesses to run the exercise more than a thousand times, O'Connell said. The Division of Alcohol and Tobacco control originally started the program but now local municipalities, such as the Columbia Police Department, are adopting the program.
"This is a two-fold method," CPD spokeswoman Jessie Haden said. "It lets patrons know that when they walk into a bar that the bouncer may just be a bouncer, but it might be a police officer."
The second part of the process is education-based.
"The bouncers will also work with the plainclothes officer to learn how to spot a fake ID and excuses and behaviors that might make us as police officers suspicious," Haden said.
Sgt. Chris Kelley, the officer in charge of Columbia's new Downtown Unit, said about 15 percent of IDs used illegally are borrowed from a sibling. The prevalence of borrowed or stolen IDs is higher than that of fake IDs.
"Both of the cases at Shiloh Bar and Grill were actually using IDs that weren't theirs," Kelley said. "One was a sibling's borrowed ID and the other young lady said a friend loaned it to her."
Haden said both subjects were issued tickets in violation of possession of ID of another person and were released on signatures. Shiloh Bar and Grill was unavailable for comment on the arrests.
Kelley said the program is a voluntary, cooperative effort between CPD and participating bars.
"Usually we seek them out, or they seek us out and we do the program," Kelley said.
Kelley said when officers come into bars as part of Badges in Businesses they dress as employees of the bar and assist in checking IDs. If someone offers what the officer suspects is a false or borrowed ID, the officers pulls the person aside and issues a citation.
The Division of Alcohol and Tobacco Control's Web site attributed the success of the program to the assistance of the Highway Safety Division, local prosecutors, licensed retailers and local law enforcement agencies and said the majority of underage youth who drink use false identification.