Petaluma Police Receive Grant to Combat Underage Alcohol Abuse

 

The Petaluma Police Department received a grant from the Sonoma County Department of Health Services to pay for alcohol compliance checks in the city and they put the money to use during the first weekend in August when employees at seven local stores were cited for selling alcohol to minors and one adult was cited for buying alcohol for a minor. 

According to Lt. Tim Lyons, 41 kids aged 13-18 were admitted to the Petaluma Valley Hospital emergency room between July 2011 and June 2012 suffering from alcohol poisoning.  Over half were 15-years-old or younger and they had an average blood alcohol level of .209.  Drivers are considered legally drunk with a blood alcohol level of .08. 

In addition to the troubling numbers from the hospital emergency room, Petaluma police arrested 27 underage drunk drivers in Petaluma.  This puts Petaluma in the top 15 percent for cities its size in terms of kids who are cited fro driving under the influence. 

The 2011-2012 California Healthy Kids Survey showed 39 percent of Petaluma 11th graders report that they usually buy alcohol themselves from a store, 22 percent steal it from a store and 22 percent get adults to buy alcohol for them. In an effort to combat this problem the police department sought out funding to enact prevention strategies.  

The Petaluma Police Department submitted an application for a competitive grant proposal for Law Enforcement Compliance Checks to Reduce Underage Alcohol-related problems from the County of Sonoma Department of Health Services. 

Petaluma was one of three agencies in the county to be awarded the grant. The grant was for $80,000.00 over a 2-year period, starting July 1, 2013 and will pay for compliance checks at off-sale and on-sale alcohol establishments to make sure they are not selling to minors, inspections of establishments to make sure they are meeting all business and safety standards, conducting Responsible Beverage Service training, compliance checks at special events that serve alcohol in Petaluma, and community outreach to better inform the public on the problems associated with underage drinking. 

During the compliance check operation on August 3, 2013 police also cited three people for selling tobacco to a minor.