Teens help police bust underage alcohol sales

Many stores sell to minors without checking IDs

Posted

How easy is it for a juvenile to buy alcohol in a store without showing identification to the clerk?

A lot easier than you would think. Just ask Sergeant Edward Grim.

Grim leads the Nassau County Police Department’s undercover Project 21 initiative in the 5th Precinct — an effort that cracks down on stores that sell alcohol to underage customers. His department’s work has resulted in an average of 60 arrests in stores in West Hempstead, Valley Stream, Franklin Square and Elmont each year since 2012.

Project 21 is conducted with the help of teenage volunteers — or underage agents —interested in law enforcement. Some volunteers come on the recommendation of the school districts they attend. Others are part of the county’s Law Enforcement Exploring program, which gives young adults the opportunity to do volunteer work in law enforcement.

Through Project 21, the police, together with the underage agent, travel in unmarked cars to area liquor stores. The teenager is given money, and enters the liquor store to attempt to make the purchase. Once the teen exits with an alcohol purchase, the police go in, make the arrest and recover the money given for the purchase.

Grim said he’s always surprised at the results of his work. “At first, I never really went to liquor stores [as opposed to other establishments that sell alcohol] because I thought, ‘this is their bread and butter – they would never sell to a minor,’” said Grim. “They were, however, the worst offenders. If I went to nine liquor stores today, nine would sell to a minor. I do this for a living – and I’m still shocked.”

What’s even more shocking is that many stores are repeat offenders. In October 2014, police arrested a dozen store clerks in West Hempstead, Franklin Square and Elmont for selling to minors. Eight of these locations sold to minors again during another Project 21 sweep in March of this year. “In all eight cases, the situation involved the same store, the same clerk, and the same underage agent,” said Grim.

Page 1 / 3