A satisfactory rating of “20 out of 20” was passed for the stores of New Paltz that sell alcoholic beverages for their compliance with the Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) law, which regulates the the illegal sale of alcohol to minors.
“We do periodic checks of on-premise locations [bars] and off-premise locations [liquor stores and convenience stores] a few times a year,” said New Paltz Police Chief Joesph Snyder. “This includes quality control checks and shoulder taps [people buying alcohol for minors].”
According to Snyder, these checks are sometimes performed by an “underaged operative.” This entails an underaged person being sent to a liquor store and instructed to attempt to buy alcohol. If the cashier at the business complies, they then are subject to legal consequences.
Snyder also detailed another technique known as the “shoulder tap.” These checks are performed on persons over the age of 21 who do not own a business that sells alcohol, but who may provide a minor asking for alcohol. This is also done by use of an underage operative.
Snyder said that the congratulations for total law compliance belongs to all the business following the ABC law and having good businesses.
“I was very pleased with the 100 percent compliance,” Synder said. “Usually, we would have three or four sales. One time several years back we had 10 sales and that was very disappointing.”
The Greater New Paltz Community Partnership (GNPCP) funds these details done for the stores around New Paltz and make it possible for these checks to be thorough. GNPCP received a five-year federal Drug Free Communities grant which provides the finance needed to keep the community of New Paltz law-abiding and safe, which includes forbidding the sale of alcohol to minors, Snyder said.
The stores and restaurants that displayed appropriate compliance include My Market, Stewart’s, Kwik Mart, Chestnut Mobil, In Good Taste, Gulf/Main Street Auto, Convenient Deli, New Paltz Wine and Spirits, Rite Aid Pharmacy, K&E Beverage, Stop & Shop, Fox and Hound Wine & Spirits, Sunoco Mart, ShopRite, Thruway Mobil, Shell Mart, Ohioville Liquor, Country Farms, Village Pizza and Asian Fusion.
“We have a scanner that when we ID anyone that looks under 35, we verify that their IDs aren’t altered,” Liz Elser, owner of New Paltz Wine and Spirits, said. “We check for height, eye color and if it seems like we need to, we ask for a second form of ID.”
The “20 out of 20” phrase entails that every alcohol selling business, on-premise and off-premise passed the checks that the New Paltz Police Department administered.