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From: Lieutenant William Sharpe Date: October 21, 2009 Subject: Shoulder Tap Operation
The Special Investigation Unit in conjunction with Girls, Inc. recently conducted a “shoulder tap” operation with assistance from two underage volunteers. Shoulder tap operations are designed to gauge the ease in which underage persons can recruit a person of legal age to buy alcohol. Underage volunteers wait outside liquor stores and approach customers to purchase alcohol for them. In this recent operation, the following liquor stores were targeted:
Yes No E.G. Harts, 861 Western Ave. 2 6 MC Heald, 6 Commercial St. 2 14 Enjoy Liquors, 53 Union St. 3 8 Sullivans, 195 Essex St. 0 9 Centro Liquors, 395 Essex St. 2 11 ______ ______ Totals 9 48
Fifty-seven patrons were approached by the volunteers and nine of these agreed to purchase alcohol for the minors who participated in the operation. When a customer refused to purchase alcohol they were given a green card indicating they had exercised good judgment while those that agreed to purchase alcohol were given a red card which spelled out the dangers of underage drinking. No sales were consummated; the SIU officers intervened in each instance. The goal of this operation is education as opposed to strict enforcement, thus no arrests were made. According to Sergeant Richard Carrow, the Officer in Charge of the SIU, “an 84% compliance rate was attained and shows promise towards efforts to educate the public relative to enforcement and the laws and regulations governing the sale of alcohol”.
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