Edhat Staff
Source: Santa Maria Police Department
On Thursday, 7/27/2017, the Santa Maria Police Department conducted an ABC “Shoulder Tap” 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 “Shoulder Tap” operation, a minor decoy under the direct supervision of officers, attempts to get people from the community to purchase alcoholic beverages from ABC licensed establishments. This operation was attempted at three different locations of “off-sale establishments” in the City of Santa Maria. Out of fourteen individuals contacted during the operation four suspects purchased an alcoholic beverage for the minor decoy. After purchasing alcohol for the minor decoy, they were contacted and arrested on charges of purchasing an alcoholic beverage for a minor. The suspects were later cited and released at the scene.
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 is provided by the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety administration through the California Alcoholic Beverage Control Mini-Grant which was awarded to the Santa Maria Police Department for these types of operations.
