By Julie Mehta
The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department will soon start giving teenagers money and sending them out to buy alcohol at Saratoga and Cupertino stores. But only merchants illegally selling liquor to teenagers need be dismayed, since the young police cadets are part of an undercover sting operation that is being conducted locally for the first time.
The cadets, backed up by officers, will be sent out to try to buy liquor on evenings and weekends with marked bills, said Capt. Robert Wilson of the department's Westside Substation.
They will answer truthfully if asked how old they are but if the vendor still sells them alcohol, officers will issue a citation. Conversely, vendors who do not sell alcohol to the undercover minor will receive thank-you letters, Wilson said.
To be involved, the cadets, all 18 and 19 years old, had to go through a rigorous selection process administered by the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to make sure they looked young enough to warrant carding. Initially, only five cadets will be sent out but that number will increase over time. The cadets may not come back to a given liquor store for three months or may check back the very next week. Fines increase with repeated offenses, as does the potential for a liquor-license suspension. Cigarette sales will also be monitored.
The sting is scheduled to begin now to coincide with school graduations, Wilson said.
"Thirty years ago, the likelihood of someone with a beer in a car hitting someone was small. Now, with the size of communities and traffic increasing, it's much more likely," he said.
In the past few months, letters about alcohol laws have been sent to stores with liquor licenses in anticipation of the sting. But similar operations in other parts of the state show that merchants sell to minors despite warnings. Wilson attributed this partly to a lack of attention on the part of vendors but added that some act intentionally, selling liquor at higher prices to minors.
This article appeared in the Saratoga News, May 29, 1996.
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