Premium ContentMouse over Home then click on Premium Content for information.Here are three Nebraska Liquor Control Commission guidelines for how police should train and use minors to try to buy alcohol during compliance checks:
"The underage cooperating individual may say 'Yes' or '21' if asked, 'Are you 21?' or 'Are you old enough?' "
"If asked, they may answer the question, 'Are you working for law enforcement?' with 'No.' "
"In order to protect the safety of the (underage cooperating individual), they may use an address that is not their own. The address of the local law enforcement agency is suggested as an appropriate substitution."
Also mentioned near the end of the long list of what minors can and cannot do when attempting to purchase alcohol: "... departing from the guidelines is grounds for dismissal."
To recap:
The state of Nebraska is telling young people three lies they can tell, and that they may lose their undercover job if they don't lie properly.
I think this is the point at which the columnist is supposed to express outrage.
Instead, I'm just a little surprised by how little room the kids are given to effectively mimic the tricks many crafty minors will use to try to buy alcohol.
A quarter-century ago, for example, it was pretty effective to just tell the bouncer, "I'm with the band." Or so I heard. From other people.
Nebraska State Sen. Bob Krist of Omaha doesn't see it my way. He has proposed a controversial bill to revise state statutes so that those undercover minors cannot tell a lie.
His argument is simple and compelling at first reading: We should not be instructing young people to lie.
Also, lobbyists for grocers, convenience stores, bars and restaurants who support the measure argue that, as Krist said, the procedures currently "border on entrapment."
Law enforcement officials and anti-underage-drinking activists argue that without those little white lies, efforts to ensure that alcohol isn't being sold to minors will be crippled. If those who sell alcohol aren't as concerned about getting caught for selling to minors, the argument goes, more young people will drink.
"Those procedures do work," said Hobert Rupe, executive director of the Nebraska Liquor Control Commission. "The undercover compliance checks and the way they are conducted are critical to fighting underage drinking in this state.
"Look deeply into the procedures too," he said. "What you'll see is how far they go not to be a form of entrapment."
The debate: Do the ends (the reduction of underage drinking) justify the means (state-sponsored fibbing)?
Think about those three questions to which the undercover minor can answer with a lie:
One, about their address, protects the young person from retaliation.
The other two — "Are you 21?" and "Are you working with law enforcement?" — are questions that no sales clerk or bartender should be asking anyway.
Their job, by law, is simply to check the person's ID and determine if the person is old enough to drink.
Now, as Rupe suggested, perhaps people should be focusing instead on the lengths that those who wrote the procedures went to to avoid what might be called entrapment.
Minors are instructed "to only use their own personal, valid identification, i.e., driver's license, state I.D., etc."
"The underage cooperating individual shall produce their valid identification if requested."
They're told "not to use a disguise that makes them appear older than they actually are."
Rupe also noted that the minors involved in such programs — often college criminal justice students, young people involved in community organizations or friends and family members of officers — must be 19 or younger.
"We want the young person to look age-appropriate. We want it to be clear this person is not of age," Rupe said. "Our young women can't wear a lot of makeup, they shouldn't be dressed up too professionally, the guys can't have a lot of facial hair, because that can make somebody look older than they are."
The minor wears a wire, he said, and, for safety, an officer is always able to see the minor as he or she attempts to purchase alcohol.
"We want it to be safe, we want a method to effectively fight underage drinking, but at the same time we want it to be fair," he said. "We think we have a pretty good system already in place."
Contact the writer: 402-444-1129, robert.nelson@owh.com
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