15 Dec San Pablo Among Bay Area Cities Set to Get Grant to Fight Underage Drinking

The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control provides licensing, education and enforcement. (ABC via Bay City News)

Pulse ed. note: This post combines information from two articles by the Bay City News wire service.

By Bay City News

Six Bay Area police departments have been selected to receive funding from the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to help boost enforcement against underage drinking and alcohol-related harm within their communities.

The police departments of San Pablo, Lodi, San Mateo, Dublin, San Jose and Petaluma are six of 27 law enforcement agencies in California that will get up to $30,000 each.

The funding comes from a $3 million grant awarded to the state Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, or ABC, from the the California Office of Traffic Safety and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The funding will go toward ABC programs such as its Decoy Shoulder Tap Program, which involves directing minors under the supervision of law enforcement to ask drinking-age adults to buy them alcohol.

Minor decoy operations use young people under 20 in conjunction with law enforcement to enter places that sell alcohol to see if the employees will sell it to them. A “shoulder tap” operation is similar but uses minors to ask adults outside of places that sell alcohol to buy it for them. Businesses caught selling to minors receive increased penalties on their license to sell booze or they can have the license suspended. People caught buying alcohol for minors are arrested, ABC said.

The funding will also support fake identification enforcement, compliance checks related to alcohol delivery services, and maximum enforcement during the holidays.

“We’re truly thankful for the ongoing partnership and strong support from OTS and NHTSA,” said ABC Director Paul Tupy in a statement. “This grant gives us vital resources to keep alcohol out of the hands of underage people and make California communities safer for everyone.”

The grants will run through September 2026.

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