By Donald Wittkowski
They may appear to be customers at a liquor store or a doorman at a nightclub, but are they really?
Some underage drinkers may learn the hard way that the person standing next to them is actually a Sea Isle City undercover police officer who is ready to make an arrest.
Sea Isle has been awarded a $6,600 grant to fund its annual “Cops in Shops” program that targets underage drinking during the busy tourism season between Memorial Day and Labor Day.
Police work cooperatively with the bar owners to try to catch anyone under the legal drinking age of 21 who attempts to use false identification to enter a liquor store or nightclub.
Sea Isle Police Chief Tom McQuillen said officers dressed in plainclothes mingle in the liquor stores or stand next to the nightclub doormen to spot underage drinkers using fake IDs.
“Once they present the ID, that’s the offense,” he said.
Police detain the offenders and give them a summons that requires them to appear in court. They risk fines and having their driver’s license suspended.
“It’s very effective because word gets out that anyone underage who is thinking of entering a bar knows that the Sea Isle police are watching,” McQuillen said.
Sea Isle is just one of a number of Jersey Shore towns that participate in the “Cops in Shops” program each summer. The New Jersey Department of Law and Public Safety distributes federal grants to the towns to fund the program, now in its 23rd year.
“These municipalities have observed an influx of individuals under the legal age to engage in alcoholic beverage activity during the summer months when the seaside attractions lure people for vacations and weekend getaways,” the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said in a statement describing “Cops in Shops.”
The program commonly results in the arrests of hundreds of people each summer at the Jersey Shore towns, according to state statistics and news reports. Some of the arrests have included adults who illegally purchased alcohol for underage drinkers.
In Sea Isle, police have a strong partnership with local bar and liquor store owners to crack down on underage drinking, McQuillen said.
Bars and liquor stores risk losing their licenses if they violate the law by flagrantly selling alcohol to underage drinkers, the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office said.
“The bars cooperate 100 percent,” McQuillen said of the owners in Sea Isle. “They have a vested interest in protecting their licenses.”
