Clarification at bottom

The person enjoying a drink next to you at a bar downtown may not be who you think it is.

It could be an undercover Athens-Clarke County Police officer ensuring the bar is not serving alcohol to underage patrons.

Officers of the ACC Alcohol Responsibilities Unit will be performing alcohol compliance tests on bars and alcohol

vendors in Athens throughout the year, Sgt. Laura Lusk said in a phone interview Monday.

The alcohol compliance tests are in response to the new policy – in effect Sept. 1 – that allows for the arrest of bar owners and liquor license holders if they are caught selling alcohol to underage patrons.

Officers will be checking every alcohol vendor in Athens and not “just bars downtown,” Lusk said.

Undercover officers will visit every business in Athens that serves alcohol to make sure employees are checking IDs and only serving alcohol to those over 21.

“We send in an undercover officer to make a purchase using an operative that is underage,” Lusk said.

An additional undercover officer will accompany the officer attempting to use an underage ID to oversee if the business refuses to sell alcohol to an underage customer.

ACC has issued alcohol licenses to approximately 294 vendors, according to the ACC Finance Department. But the amount of vendors changes daily as ACC continues to receive applications.

“Most bars around town already know about [the undercover officers],” said Drew Ward, a bartender and server at The Globe.

“If the doorman lets in someone underage and the bartender serves them alcohol, the bartender goes to jail, so we have definitely stressed to our doormen not to let in anyone under 21.”

CLARIFICATION: In Tuesday’s story “Underage officers check bars,” undercover Athens-Clarke County Police officers in bars are not underage. They are accompanied by someone under the age of 21 who is attempting to purchase alcohol using an underage Georgia license. The undercover officer would testify in court if he or she
witnessed alcohol being served to the underage operative.