Local bar staff members and managers learned how to control crowds and recognize signs of sexual assault at a training session Wednesday hosted by Madison’s Alcohol License Review Committee.
The ALRC hosts training sessions of this kind every six months, where city officials educate downtown bar employees about safe and legal bar practices.
Madison Fire Department’s Scott Strosberg said bars in the city have recently had trouble monitoring their capacities, especially when patrons congregate in certain areas inside the venues.
“If all the people are gathered in one particular area, then people can’t get through and it’s a problem,” Strosberg said.
According to Strosberg, bars should have pre-planned evacuation strategies for emergency situations such as fires and shootings.
Madison Police Department Officer Daryl Doberstein also said bar staff should routinely walk through the bar to break up crowds, have on easily identifiable clothing and turn away unruly patrons at the door to manage over-crowding and prevent disturbances.
In addition to safety tips, bar staff members heard a presentation from the Dane County Rape Crisis Center about the role alcohol plays in sexual assault.
“Using alcohol as a date rape drug is very common; too common,” city Food and Alcohol Policy Coordinator Mark Woulf said. “Especially among college-aged people.”
Woulf said bartenders and wait staff play a key role in preventing sexual assaults, serving as a “first line of defense.”
Dane County Rape Crisis Center Director Kelly Anderson said alcohol is a factor in approximately half of all non-stranger sexual assaults, so it is important for bartenders and staff to be vigilant about not serving alcohol to overly intoxicated patrons.
