Hold adults accountable for providing alcohol

Dana S. Leonard

Approach 1: Strengthen and enforce the law.

For every underage drinking tragedy there is usually an adult person, organization or business that furnished the alcohol to the underage drinker. The alcohol that fuels the drunken and disorderly behavior that contributes to these tragic outcomes usually is provided by an adult. Increasing funding to the police and enforcing the existing laws in Pennsylvania that make it a criminal offense to furnish alcohol to underage persons and drink underage is essential.

For years in Pennsylvania, law enforcement energy and investigative time have been almost exclusively devoted toward targeting the underage drinker, while usually ignoring the adult who furnished the alcohol to the minor. The traditional police strategy intended to create a deterrent impact was to simply issue citations to underage drinkers.

Law enforcement rarely looked past the underage drinker in search of the source of the alcohol. The source is most often an adult who purchased, sold or otherwise provided the alcohol for the minor or hosted the underage drinking party. Focusing police resources on the underage drinker, and at the same time ignoring the adult provider, does not work and is unjust. In Pennsylvania on average over 37,000 teenagers and young adults are charged with underage drinking each year and most of the time the police officer does not investigate further to determine the source of the underage alcohol. Only about 5 percent of underage drinking cases result in criminal charges against the source.

Law enforcement and communities need another strategy and necessary funding must come with that strategy to be successful. The State College Police Department’s Source Investigation Program is designed to target this need. Through SIP, enforcement time and investigative resources are focused on the source of the alcohol, those who buy alcohol for underage youth, and the persons, organizations, or businesses who allow underage minors to consume alcoholic beverages on their premises.

Furnishing alcohol to minors in Pennsylvania is a misdemeanor offense and those who host an underage drinking party or otherwise allow underage drinkers to drink should consistently be investigated and, where appropriate, charged with this criminal offense. However, these additional enforcement and investigative efforts result in significant police costs. Without additional funding much of this work will not be possible. In a community where more than 60 percent of the crimes and offenses are alcohol fueled, more effort, money and resources are absolutely necessary to counter the adverse effect that alcohol abuse has on our community.

Targeted and fully funded enforcement of Pennsylvania's furnishing alcohol to minors and underage drinking statutes, coupled with increased education and social engineering of our attitudes toward teen and young adult drinking, can change the oft tragic outcomes for individuals and our community.

Sgt. Dana S. Leonard works in the State College Police Department.