Alcohol Laws and Enforcement

UC Berkeley Campus Policies

City of Berkeley, State and Federal Laws

Alcohol Laws

Noise Laws

Enforcement Authorities

Enforcement Operations and Strategies

FAQ

In the News

Campus, city and state departments all play roles in publicizing and enforcing alcohol policies and laws in the campus area. City and campus police have received extra grant funding over the past years to increase the enforcement operations they conduct to reduce underage drinking. They use a variety of explicit and undercover strategies - described here. If you have direct experience with such an operation - email your story to partysafe@berkeley.edu. We'd like to build useful ways of sharing student stories about alcohol laws and enforcement in their lives.

Football Games
Student entrance gate enforcement is conducted by UCPD. Officers are primarily enforcing the Campus Student Conduct Code, though they may also cite/arrest for city and state violations if the situation warrants it. For example, public drunkenness, regardless of age, can lead to arrest and jail. UCPD officers monitor for underage or excessive alcohol use as evidenced by observable signs and behaviors after students enter the ticket gates, i.e. motor skills, walking, skin flush, eyes, and, if contacted, how the student participates in that interaction. Officers strive for consistency, however assessments can vary depending on their past training and experiences.

Officers breathalyze students to establish a general quantity of alcohol use for the purpose of awareness. Because it is not for legal purposes, students can refuse to blow into the breathalyzer regardless of age. Underage drinking is an automatic UCPD citation and entry to the game denied. Campus Conduct citations must be presented at the Student Judicial Affairs Office within a certain period of time to pay a $75 fine and take the alcohol EDU sanctions course online. If over 21 years old - it's at the officer's discretion - given his/her concerns for public or student's own safety. To dispute a Campus Conduct citation or seek recourse for the penalty, contact Office of Student Conduct.

Party Patrols
UCPD and Berkeley Police conduct joint Party Patrols Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights regularly throughout the academic year. The Party Patrol Teams are largely made up of dedicated officers with specialized training. They respond quickly to concerns and complaint calls about parties, thus reducing the drain on the police serving the remainder of the community. Berkeley Police estimate that 90% of the party complaints they respond to are in the south campus area.

While parties are fundamental to the college social experience, the consequences of poorly planned and controlled parties can go way beyond one embarrassing moment or a hangover. Student surveys show that off-campus parties are the largest source of student alcohol-related injuries, assaults, and sexual harassment. Party Patrols are the enforcement strategy which impacts these issues most directly when they reduce the number of parties that spill out onto the street, attract uninvited people, disrupt the sleep and study of others, and foster other harm associated with drinking.

If the Party Patrol arrives at an event, they want to talk with the host, the person responsible for the safety of the guests and fellow residents. For noise complaints, they can give Second Response warnings and fines. If they observe things that make them suspect that criminal activity is taking place, including underage drinking, they can enter the house, apartment, etc. to investigate.

If you're at a party that starts to get out of control, call the police before someone else does. Breaking up your own party can save a lot of money and problems later on.

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Minor Decoy
Minor Decoy Compliance Checks are when an enforcement officer waits outside the premises while a person under age 21 attempts to purchase or order an alcoholic beverage. If the establishment sells alcohol to the young person, the enforcement officer issues a citation to the seller/server and the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) may take disciplinary action against the business where the sale occurred. That may include a fine, suspension or revocation of the alcoholic beverage license. In 1994, the California Supreme court ruled that use of minor decoys was not entrapment and did not violate due process requirements.

There are currently 329 alcohol licensees in Berkeley. Berkeley Police have been doing regular and consistent Minor Decoy Compliance Checks since 2004 when approximately 40% of businesses were caught selling to minors. UC Police Department joined the effort in fall '06 and the two departments conducted 3 Minor Decoy Operations, visited 38 licensees, and caught 4 (10.5%) selling to minors. According to John Carr, Public Information Specialist at CA ABC, the state average is approximately 18%, so the current Berkeley operations seem to be accomplishing their purpose.

According to Ed Kikumoto, Policy Director for the Alcohol Policy Network, the Berkeley Minor Decoy Compliance Checks are about as successful as they can be given the strict guidelines the police and decoys must follow. Regulations require that the decoy shall: be less than 20 years of age; display the appearance which could generally be expected of a person under 21 years of age; carry his or her own identification showing the decoy's correct date of birth or shall carry no identification; present their identification upon request to any seller of alcoholic beverages; and answer truthfully any questions about his or her age.

Berkeley businesses where Sales of Alcohol to Minors occur receive a notice to appear before the Oakland office of the ABC. They face increased penalties for multiple violations. A first time violation may result in a license suspension of 15 days or a fine of $750 to $3000 (based on annual sales volume). The vast majority of licensees elect to pay the fine rather than suspend alcohol sales for fifteen days. A second sale to a minor within a three year period is an automatic license suspension of 25 days. A third sale to a minor within a three year period may result in license revocation. Actual penalties levied are often aggravated or mitigated by various circumstances, including disciplinary history and attitude of judicial bodies involved.

Clerks and servers who illegally sell alcohol to minors in Berkeley receive a ticket and a notice to appear before the Traffic Division of the Superior Court of Alameda where their fine is determined. According to Alameda County bail schedule, the minimum fine is $250 and the maximum is $1000.

Why do compliance checks? Compliance checks can save lives! Reducing underage access to alcohol can lower the frequency of problems that increase with teen drinking rates, including teen pregnancy, school dropout rates, violent crimes, fights, vandalism, and traffic crashes. In addition, the financial costs to the US of underage drinking is substantial - an estimated $53 billion annually (NAS 2003).

In communities where there is little or no enforcement, individuals who look younger than age 21 can buy alcohol without showing age identification in 45-50% of their attempted purchases (Toomey TL et al, 2001, Perry CL et al, 2002, Forster JL, 1994). When Minor Decoy Compliance Checks are used on a regular basis, the percentage of licensees selling to minors drops dramatically. Two studies from the mid-1990s found that after compliance checks were conducted, sales to underage patrons reduced from 60% to 25% and 80% to 30% (Lewis RK et al 1996, Preusser DF et al 1994). In Concord, New Hampshire, sales to youth decreased from 28% to 10% after quarterly compliance checks - coupled with increased penalties and a media campaign - at 539 off-premise alcohol establishments (Barry R et al 2004).

Results of the California Safer Universities survey of UC Berkeley undergraduates in recent years also point to the effectiveness of the Minor Decoy Compliance Checks. The percent of undergraduates who said it is easy to very easy to find a liquor/grocery or convenience store within two miles of campus where they could buy alcohol without showing an ID decreased from 29.5% to 19.4% from 2003 to 2006. In fall 2006 90.4% said it is somewhat to very likely that an underage person will be asked for ID or proof of age if they try to buy alcohol at a store near campus.

According to both police departments, business owners and clerks should be warned that state laws and city ordinances pertaining to the sale of alcoholic beverages to minors will be strictly enforced and that Minor Decoy Compliance Checks will be ongoing throughout the academic year. Anyone with information on establishments selling alcoholic beverages to minors is asked to call Berkeley Police Department at 510-981-5900 or UCPD at 510-642-6760 or the ABC Oakland Office at 510-622-4975.

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Sobriety Checkpoints and Saturation Patrols
At sobriety checkpoints officers evaluate drivers for signs of alcohol or drug impairment at certain points on the roadway. Vehicles are stopped in a specific sequence, such as every other vehicle or every fourth, fifth or sixth vehicle. Saturation patrols are concentrated enforcement efforts that target impaired drivers by observing moving violations such as drunk driving, speeding and aggressive driving.

In California a DUI can cost anywhere between $5,200 to $10,000, including vehicle towing and storage, increases in auto insurance premiums, fines, court assessments, DUI classes, attorneys fees and more. In addition to any civil or criminal consequences, Cal students may also find themselves subject to disciplinary actions from the University.

So regardless of what you may be celebrating, plan your activities with safety in mind. If you are using alcohol, don't over drink or over serve. Pace yourself and don't encourage or force anyone to drink. Whether host or guest, plan for safe transportation in advance and stick to your plan.

If you see someone trying to drive impaired, notify local law enforcement in the Berkeley area at 981-5911. Elsewhere call 911 from your cell phone and give the location, description, and, if possible, the license plate number of the vehicle. Don't try to stop, follow or detain the vehicle - leave that to the officers in the field. Some warning signs of a drunk driver include straddling lanes or driving on the center line, driving with headlights off at night, erratic braking or stopping without cause, slow response to traffic signals, turning wide, almost striking another vehicle, following too closely and weaving or zigzagging across the road.

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Shoulder Tap Program
ABC and local law enforcement use this decoy program to detect and deter alcohol availability to minors who stand outside of liquor stores or markets and ask adults to buy them alcohol. During the program, a minor decoy, under the direct supervision of law enforcement officers, solicits adults outside ABC licensed stores to buy the minor decoy alcohol. Any person seen furnishing alcohol to the minor decoy is arrested (either cited or booked) for furnishing alcohol to a minor.

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Operation Trapdoor
As more alcohol merchants have begun to check ID for every alcohol purchase, minors have turned to false ID as a way to obtain alcohol. "False" IDs includes counterfeit and altered ID's as well as ID's that are real, but borrowed from another person. ABC and local law enforcement use Trapdoor in conjunction with ABC licensed outlets. The licensee contacts law enforcement when the have aperson with false ID at their business. Since roving teams are in the area, the response time is nearly immediate. They arrest, interview, and cite the minor or, in extreme cases, take the minor into custody.

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