Anchorage Daily News

Liquor store patrons who buy booze for minors are the target of undercover sting operations taking place with increasing frequency this spring, according to Anchorage police.

The operations, being conducted at stores across the city and state, employ people between 16 and 20 years old who hang outside liquor stores and ask patrons to buy them alcohol, a practice known as the "shoulder tap."

Meanwhile, agents conducting surveillance catch the transactions on tape and arrest the suspects. If it's their first time, the targets are charged with the misdemeanor crime of furnishing alcohol to minors.

In Anchorage, the push has been under way since March 18. By Tuesday, police had arrested 15 suspects, Lt. Paul Honeman said, though more than 140 people have been approached by the minors but would not agree to buy them alcohol.

There is a big need -- particularly around graduation time -- to keep booze out of kids' hands, as police often see when they show up at house parties, Sgt. Dennis Allen said.

"It looks like cockroaches when the lights come on," he said. "There's kids running everywhere and it's obvious there's alcohol there."

Store clerks and owners aren't being targeted under the effort because they often have no way to know if the booze is for a minor, Allen said. However, in a few cases, the clerks have noticed the undercover solicitors and had to be informed of the sting because they tried to toss the kids off the property, he said.

The kids are paid recruits who dress and act their age, asking for beer, whisky or vodka just as their peers would, said Robert Beasley, enforcement supervisor for the Alaska Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, which is running the project.

"There are a lot of people out there that wouldn't bat an eye when there are kids asking them to buy booze," Beasley said. "It's almost like the idea is that this is a rite of passage."

Officials across the state have made more than 60 arrests for supplying alcohol to minors in the past couple of years.

The misdemeanor charge carries a maximum penalty of a year in jail and a $10,000 fine, though most first-time offenders walk away with smaller fines, probation and suspended sentences, Beasley said. However, a second offense in five years is a felony crime punishable by up to five years in prison.

ADVERTISEMENT