BOULDER — Fake-ID arrests in Boulder have dropped more than half this year, and officials say they will revive a surveillance program next year to go after more underage drinkers.
With two weeks left in the year, fake-ID arrests in the college town were down 56 percent from 2007.
Boulder police say the drop comes after the city lost funding in March for a “Cops in Shops” surveillance program in liquor stores. Last year, 80 fake-ID tickets were issued through Dec. 17, This year, there were only 35 tickets issued through the same period, an annual decline of 56 percent.
Boulder police spokeswoman Sarah Huntley told the Daily Camera newspaper that fake-ID arrests should be back up next year.
That’s because the Boulder Police Department and the University of Colorado recently received a $45,200 grant to crack down on underage drinking. Huntley says the grant will be used to revive the surveillance program starting in 2009.
The crackdown will be like the one funded with a 2006 grant, where 30 so-called shoulder-tap surveillance events were set up outside liquor stores.
“If we see people going in who appear to be underage, we’ll tap them on the shoulder and ask to see their IDs,” Huntley said. “A lot of our sting operations were conducted in 2007, which probably explains why those numbers are higher.”
