By Clarence Cromwell
Twenty undercover police cadets ages 17 to 19 will try to buy liquor from businesses in Saratoga and Cupertino in coming months; anyone who sells them a drink is going to get stung with a ticket.
A business that allows an illegal sale could also end up with a 10-day liquor license suspension.
The enforcement operation, the first of its kind in Saratoga and Cupertino, is run by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department to discourage sales of alcohol to minors. The state department of Alcoholic Beverage Control sets the rules for such programs.
Starting Feb. 1, undercover sheriff's department cadets armed with $5 bills will walk into liquor stores and restaurants and try to buy alcoholic beverages. If asked, they will show their real driver's licenses, and they will answer truthfully if the clerks ask how old they are, ABC district administrator Lydia Engdol said.
If a clerk sells alcohol to one of the cadets, a second undercover officer--one with a badge--will write the clerk a $250 ticket. Fines can be increased for repeated offenses.
Police will also report to Engdol the name of the store where the sale was transacted. An administrative hearing with ABC officials will be held, and the store will be restricted from selling alcohol for 10 days, if the sale is the first offense.
The sting operation is part of a program called IMPACT, designed to make merchants aware of alcohol laws. IMPACT stands for "Informed Merchants to Prevent Alcoholic Crime Tendencies."
The sheriff's department and ABC previously offered training seminars. Then teams of one deputy and one ABC agent visited stores during December to answer questions and issue warnings on any violations of the law they could spot.
"There's a lot of warning given," Engdol said. "Even so, we find that a lot of people still sell to minors. It is a big problem, obviously."
She said the sheriff's department expects to catch a few businesses selling alcohol to minors because this is the first time such a sting has been done in Saratoga or Cupertino.
The first time the San Jose Police Department conducted the program, officers caught clerks at about half the businesses checked, Engdol said. But later stings netted fewer offenders.
"The more they run these programs, the less they find people selling to minors," Engdol said.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, Wednesday, January 24, 1996.
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