Federal funds to aid Columbia crackdown on drinking
Columbia received $11,000 in federal funding for enforcement efforts.
Published April 23, 2010
The city will use $11,000 in federal grant money to crack down on underage drinking, including payment for minors who assist police with enforcement.
According to City Council's agenda from Monday's meeting, the grant will reimburse officers for overtime and pay minors to help with the enforcement of underage drinking policies.
Fifth Ward City Councilwoman Laura Nauser said the issue is very important in Columbia.
"Being in a college town, we're always concerned with underage drinking," Nauser said. "I was glad to see we had those funds."
The agenda states minors will be paid to "conduct special enforcement activities." Some of the grant money will also go to increase compliance checks at liquor stores, neighborhood alcohol enforcement operations and special event and task force operations.
According to the agenda, this new appropriation of grant funds would fit into the vision of the city and the police department by reducing crime and substance abuse related to underage drinking.
The Missouri Department of Public Safety wrote the award contract and specified several conditions for the award. These conditions relate to proper reporting of tickets and citations issued for underage drinking as it pertains to three areas that will be more emphasized, including party prevention and dispersal.
Columbia Police Department spokeswoman Jessie Haden said the grant money would increase enforcement in two areas.
"We do compliance checks whether or not bars and restaurants are selling to underage people by the drink, and the other thing we do is check package sales, so we check if grocery stores, convenience stores and liquor stores are selling alcohol to underage people," she said.
Haden said many of these checks involve a plainclothes officer and a minor. The minor goes into the establishment and attempts to purchase alcohol. If the purchase is successful, the minor notifies the officer, who issues a citation to the owner.
"I think it surprises people sometimes that bars tend to do better proportionally than the restaurants," Haden said. "Because of the scrutiny they are under, bars have become more proactive with server training and with checking IDs at the door. We want to continue that level of scrutiny to restaurants as well."
Much of the grant money will go to pay officers who come in during off hours to carry out enforcement operations, Haden said.
Wellness Resource Center Director Kim Dude, who also serves as the higher education representative to the Substance Abuse Advisory Committee, said this movement is a continuation of Police Chief Ken Burton's emphasis on making downtown safer.
"The police efforts downtown have already decreased underage and abusive drinking in that area," Dude said. "The fact that they can get grants like this to support these efforts has helped."
Dude said efforts like these aim to make Columbia a more secure environment. Burton has already started increasing enforcement of drinking laws by putting more police officers downtown by the bars starting at earlier hours, as opposed to only when they close.
"The most important issue there is to protect the safety of students," she said. "Since we've gotten a new police chief, he has put priority on making the downtown area safer."