Edhat StaffSource: Santa Maria Police Department
On Saturday, 02/17/2017, the Santa Maria Police Department conducted a “Minor Decoy” operation throughout the City of Santa Maria. The program is designed to reduce youth access to alcoholic beverages. These type of operations are conducted by local law enforcement throughout the state.
During the “Minor Decoy” operation a minor decoy, under the age of 21, attempted to purchase alcoholic beverages, under the direct supervision of SMPD undercover officers. The decoy entered five different “on-sale establishments” and two “off-sale establishment.” None of the establishments provided/served alcohol to the minor decoy. This operation is consider to be a success because at every establishment the clerks/servers asked for identification from the minor decoy and no violations were committed.
These programs are intended to reduce the availability of alcoholic beverages to minors; statistics show that teens have a greater rate of drunken driving crashes than adults.
Funding for these programs was provided by the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety administration through an ABC Grant which was awarded to the Santa Maria Police Department for these types of operations.
