After months of planning and coordination with the City of Madison and the Madison Police Department, eight downtown liquor stores are now equipped with ID scanners funded by UW-Madison.
Madison's Alcohol Policy Coordinator Katherine Plominski said the new alcohol initiative, launched July 9, is intended to prevent underage alcohol sales by providing ID scanners to local liquor stores.
MacTaggart's Market, Capitol Centre Foods, Riley's Wines of the World, University Avenue Liquor, Pinkus McBride Market, Sadhara Wine Shop, The Vineyard and Badger Liquor are the first stores participating in the initiative.
According to Plominski, the initiative was inspired by the Memorial Union Rathskeller's success using ID scanners to check the validity of IDs. Special Assistant to the Chancellor Dawn Crim said the University Alcohol License Renewal Committee's policy of encouraging new licensees to utilize scanners for alcohol sales was also a factor.
We wanted to support the Alcohol Density Plan that was passed in the City Council over one year ago,"" Crim said. The Alcohol Density Plan is designed to hold the number of liquor licenses steady in the campus and downtown area.
Dan Granat, manager of the Rathskeller, said the establishment has been using ID scanners since January. ""It has enabled the bartenders a little bit more merit to actually taking the fake IDs ... Sometimes the bartenders have a harder time [telling if an ID is fake]. This just actually merits it a little bit more.""
At a cost of about $1,000 each, the ID scanners are ""quite a hefty expenditure,"" Crim said. The funds for the initiative came from the Chancellors Office and the University of Wisconsin Police Department, she said.
Granat said the scanners are ""definitely worth the investment.""
Fake IDs found by the liquor stores participating in the initiative are turned over to the MPD every three months, according to Mitch Eveland, manager of Capitol Centre Foods, one of the eight participating stores.
Liquor stores participating in the program say it is too soon to tell how successful the initiative will be, but are optimistic about the use of the ID scanners.
Joel Kouba, manager of University Avenue Liquor, said the scanners will be particularly useful during busy times - Thursday through Saturday nights. Kouba also noted the limitations of scanners, however, because they can only detect fake IDs, not underage individuals using an of-age person's ID.
Capitol Centre Foods is unique among program participants, as it is a grocery store rather than a liquor store.
The store has multiple check-out points, which is why it is the only program participant so far that has invested in four additional ID scanners to supplement the one provided by the program, according to Eveland. Capitol Centre Foods also uses the scanners for tobacco sales in addition to alcohol sales.
