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Can a bartender face charges for furnishing minor if the bar's bouncers check everyone's ID with a scanner and blacklight?
Anonymous2 views5 answers
I bartend at a college bar. Recently a police officer told me that they are going to raid it for the 2nd time this semester, and if the owner of the bar has not purchased a device for photographing each ID and proving which customer came in with which ID every bartender will be arrested and charged. The bar has multiple bouncers working at once, and checks every ID manually, with a blacklight, and with a scanner. However many of the fake ID's are so advanced they pass all 3 of these checks. Last month, it was raided and there were about 100 underage people there. The police told me they don't have the right to search them, so they can't prove they gained access through a fake ID. As a bartender, can I face charges even though we thoroughly check ID's and I am merely doing my job?
You are legally responsible if YOU serve a minor an alcohol beverage, or are the owner of the establishment. It is not a defense that you relied on someone else to verify age.
In a word, YES. As a bartender you are responsible for everybody you serve. Not only that they're over 21, but that they are not already intoxicated. Scary stuff and very expensive fines if you're busted.
The criminal offense of serving alcohol to an underage person provides, “[A] person may not furnish an alcoholic beverage to an individual if … the person furnishing the alcoholic beverage knows that the individual is under the age of 21 years….” The knowledge element of the offense is what a reasonable bartender would be deemed to know or should know under the circumstances, so you cannot rely on deliberate ignorance or ignore reasonable grounds to believe the person is underage. The threat by the police to arrest and charge every bartender is not a legitimate threat as far as prosecution goes, as the law would not support the charge unless there is some evidence the bartenders had knowledge they were serving underage patrons. I suppose if hundreds of patrons on any given night are being served, a question can be raised about turning a blind eye to the problem, and the bar becoming a public nuisance, but that is a liquor license issue to be addressed by the liquor board. The police cannot force the bar to photograph every patron's ID, and I can imagine many people of legal age would even stop going to an establishment that had such a policy. That's a lot of private information (name, home address, date of birth, photo, license restrictions, etc.) to have to give up to a third party for the privilege of buying a beer. Sounds like the police are tying to force the restaurant and bar businesses to solve a police and law enforcement problem which they do not know how to solve, and the enforcement mechanism they are using should be challenged. That's a decision for your bar owner, not you, however.
