Several downtown bars popular with UW-Madison students have come under increased police scrutiny after serving alcohol to underage patrons.
According to Madison Police Captain Jay Lengfeld, city law enforcement has stepped up its efforts to enforce the legal drinking age in recent months. Lengfeld said he is not sure whether underage students are drinking more today than in years past.
Lengfeld said community pressure is the main force behind the stepped-up police enforcement.
Police have particularly targeted bars popular with students such as The Church Key, Frida's and the Kollege Klub for serving alcohol to minors. According to City Attorney Michael May, The Church Key has received five violations for serving alcohol to underage customers in recent weeks.
But bars are not the only targets of police trying to enforce the legal drinking age. Large house parties in off-campus apartments and houses have also been a consistent concern for police. And when police manage to bust those parties, the tickets given to underage partiers and those throwing the parties can raise well over $10,000 for the city.
However, Lengfeld said police pressure on house parties has decreased from its high point 10 to 20 years ago, before city officials began to fear that police had gone too far in their ticketing of students.
In the ‘90s we had all these grants to bust all these house parties,\ Lengfeld said. ""But then you had the mayor and City Council say we're never going to accept another grant to do that because we did so much enforcement.""
Lengfeld said ""political pressure"" would eventually work to lessen the intensity of police efforts against underage drinking further, particularly at house parties. He added that police will then try to ""come up with other alternatives"" to enforce liquor laws.
But Ald. Mike Verveer, District 8, said police are becoming more, not less, aggressive in their enforcement of the legal drinking age.
""There's much more of a concerted effort over the last few months than we've seen in the last few years,"" Verveer said. ""It has the makings of becoming a big, long-term crackdown.""
Verveer said police no longer occupied with football-season house parties are now able to concentrate their efforts on bars popular with underage students.
Verveer said students could receive more tickets for underage drinking in coming weeks as police efforts become more intense.
""And that's something I'm in no way excited about,"" he said.
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