San Mateo Businesses Cited for Selling Alcohol to Minors

The San Mateo Police Department cited six businesses earlier this month for allegedly selling alcohol to a minor, San Mateo police said Thursday.

The Police Department's neighborhood response team comprised the operation with two 19-year-old cadets, with heelp from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control.

The team conducted decoy operations at 42 licensee locations in San Mateo on Thursday, Dec. 6.

In the operations, the minor decoys attempted to purchase alcoholic beverages from the licensees.

Police cited the following six locations on suspicion of selling alcoholic beverages to minors:

• The Swinging Door Bar, 106 E. 25th Ave.
• Ryan’s Sports Bar, 477 E. Hillsdale Blvd.
• BelMateo Bowl, 4330 Olympic Blvd.
• CVS, 77 Bovet Road
• Everybody’s Market, 916 E. 4th Ave.
• La Morenita Market, 1519 S. Claremont St.

The ongoing compliance operations ensure alcohol licenses are being used by bars at merchants. Licensees in violation are subject to criminal charges and/or administrative action against their license by ABC.

Statistically, drivers under 21 have a higher rate of drunken driving fatalities than the general adult population, according to the San Mateo Police Department.

The San Mateo Police Department also partners locally with community and youth leaders in the North Central AOD Coalition (AOD – Alcohol and Other Drugs), facilitated by the department's partners at the Peninsula Conflict Resolution Center (PCRC).

The AOD Partnership is dedicated to preventing drug and alcohol abuse by empowering residents, youth and local businesses to reduce access, sales and advertising of alcohol and drug products to minors.

San Mateo violations during this sting were below the state average for such an operation, indicating San Mateo businesses are more often in compliance with the law than the state average, police said.

For more resources from ABC, click here: http://www.abc.ca.gov/programs/programs_PE.html

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