Winston Mardis says the liquor control commission’s Serving Alcohol to Minors program was designed to stop underage drinking. The city sends minors into bars, hoping to bust anyone who will serve them. In 1993, the program’s first year, 56 percent of all liquor licensees tested were caught selling to minors. Last year, that figure was down to 10 percent. In 1996, bar owners challenged SAM in state court, charging entrapment. The city won.
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The liquor control commission runs SAM stings with the Chicago Police Department using part-time employees who are under 21. Sometimes they’re dressed in business suits or street clothes; other times they dress like construction workers. The one thing they have in common is that they are all younger than they look. They order a drink, and if they get served police immediately issue a ticket. The bar owner then must pay $500, close for three days, or appeal the fine. If the owner decides to appeal, the charge may get thrown out, or things might get worse–the fine or suspension could go up.
Before CAPS, the city’s community policing program, tickets would first go to the minors who’d bought the alcohol, says Michael Boyce, an attorney for the liquor control commission. Then the city would hope they’d show up in court to testify against the liquor licensee–even though they were being prosecuted themselves. By using underage police department employees, Boyce says, the city has a sure thing.
9 “We open at three o’clock, and we have a doorman starting at four, which is five hours ahead of anyone else in the world. We got hit in the hour from three to four. They’re trying to pick the most vulnerable time because they know the first customers at a bar are always especially welcome. Halsted Street is not exactly hopping with people during the daytime who are looking for a beer. Why not check me on a Saturday night when I’ve got 1,000 people running through here? That’s when the real underage people want to drink.”
–Neal Pollack
