Features

Ongoing stings aimed at Berkeley liquor stores selling booze to teenagers have left the state’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) District Administrator Everest Robillard “very unhappy.” 

“The usual violation rate on decoy operations is about 10 percent,” Robillard said, “and this last time the rate was well over 50 percent.” 

Teamed with officers from the Berkeley and UC police departments and two underage decoys, ABC has been running stings on city liquor sellers since January—most recently in a March 19 sweep that found 14 of the 26 targeted stores willing to sell to minors. 

The first raids in early January targeted merchants on San Pablo Avenue, where more than half the stores sold to decoys. On a follow-up operation in the same area, the rate dropped to zero, Robillard said. “In every case in Berkeley there was a common problem, an employee who was willing to sell to minors. The owners were involved.” 

Involved or not, it’s the owners who have to pay fines ranging from $750 to $3,000. 

The stings are being run with the help of $50,000 ABC grants to police departments in Berkeley, Santa Barbara, Los Angeles, Irvine, San Diego and Santa Cruz. 

The March 19 sting in Berkeley involved three ABC officers teamed with city and university police. The decoys, aged 17 and 19, were carefully screened volunteers recruited through community organizations. 

“We try not to use kids from the neighborhood, so we used Hayward kids in Berkeley,” Robillard said, adding that they were recruited from Community Prevention of Alcohol Related Problems. Volunteers from the Alcohol Policy Network of Berkeley, in turn, are used in stings in Hayward. 

—Richard Brenneman