Palm Springs Police Department awarded grant to battle alcohol-related crime

The California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) has awarded the Palm Springs Police Department a $55,405 grant to combat alcohol-related crime.

The grants strengthen local law enforcement efforts by combining the efforts of local police officers and ABC agents. ABC agents have expertise in alcoholic beverage laws and can help communities reduce alcohol-related problems.

“With this being a tourist destination, there's a possibility that people are coming out here to have a good time. And a lot of times that good time includes drinking alcohol, and that alcohol might be provided to minors,” said Gustavo Araiza, Public Information Officer for the Palm Springs Police Department.

PSPD's grant is one of 27 awarded in California to local law enforcement agencies through ABC’s Alcohol Policing Partnership (APP) program.

The APP program was created in 1995 to strengthen partnerships between ABC and local law enforcement agencies.

The program is designed to put bad operators out of business, keep alcohol away from minors, and bring penalties such as fines, suspensions, or revocations against businesses that violate the law.

Officers will carry out 4 different types of operations:

• Shoulder Tap - “What we do is we try to prevent violators from purchasing alcohol for underage people. These would be people that go up to somebody in the parking lot and try to convince them to go inside and buy them some alcohol.”
• Impact operations - “We go and visit these establishments make sure that by law that they have certain signage posted in the same respect, we want to make sure that the alcohol that's been served is not contaminated.”
• Decoy operations- “We're going to be targeting the licensees. So on that one, if we go to an establishment, we want to make sure that the licensees checking for IDs. So in most cases, we're not going to send a decoy in the operation with a fake ID, we're going to send them without ID.”
• Party patrols- “Would help us prevent people from going to different parties, and having underage people getting served alcohol at those locations.”

“The program can improve the quality of life in neighborhoods,” said ABC Director Eric Hirata. “We’ve seen a real difference in the communities where the grant program resources have been invested.”

The APP program has distributed over $40 million to local law enforcement to combat alcohol-related crime. ABC is a Department of the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency

If a shop gets caught selling to anyone underage, they can face a slew of penalties such as fines, suspensions or revocations.