State Liquor Stores Face No Scrutiny from State Police

An apparent double standard in liquor control enforcement by the Pennsylvania State Police is drawing scrutiny as the state considers a plan to privatize the state liquor stores.

As part of their alcohol enforcement duties, state police use undercover operations involving minors attempting to purchase liquor from bars and restaurants. However, the same age compliance checks do not apply to the 614 state-owned and operated liquor stores across the commonwealth. In fact, the state police say they do not engage those stores with any age compliance checks at all, trusting the employees to handle it.

Lt. Myra Taylor, spokesperson for the state police, said the enforcement policies come down to the difference between being owned by the state versus being licensed by the state.

“Wine and Spirit Stores are not considered licensed establishments and therefore are exempt from the Age Compliance Check Program or any other age verification program of the Bureau of Liquor Control Enforcement,” said Taylor.

According to the state police, the Age Compliance Program was developed in 2005 and uses volunteers between the ages of 18-20 to attempt to purchase alcohol from licensed establishments in the commonwealth. If the establishment serves the underage buyer, a state police officer immediately notifies the owner, who can be subject to a $1,000 fine for a first offense.

A spokesperson for the Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) said the state police do not run enforcement checks at state stores because LCB employees are highly trained at checking IDs.

Last year, liquor store clerks did more than one million ID checks and the PLCB has recorded only five sales to minors since 2005, according to the spokesperson. Any clerk engaged in a transaction with a minor will be severely disciplined, including the loss of their job.

State store employees go through annual ID training and have no incentive to sell to minor minors or those who are visibly intoxicated, said the PLCB spokesperson.

State Rep. John Taylor (R-Philadelphia), chair of the House Liquor Control committee, agreed state store workers are highly trained and less likely to sell to minors. But, he added, why not hold them subject to the same rules as everyone else, just to make sure?

“If the state liquor clerks are as good as everyone says they are, they shouldn’t have any problem with that,” said Taylor. “There’s no reason they shouldn’t be subject to those same checks.”

Opponents of the privatization effort say the state-controlled stores do a better job of preventing sales to minors and running checks on the stores would be an unnecessary cost.

Wendell Young, president of United Food and Commercial Workers 1776, which represents the state liquor store employees, said state police run their operations to target establishments which sell to minors. He argued complaints against state liquor stores are so rare as to make enforcement unnecessary.

“It’s a question of limited resources and directing their efforts where the smoke is,” said Young. “The taxpayers of Pennsylvania shouldn't have to raise the budget to pay for stings where there is not an issue.”

Young said state liquor store employees risk losing their jobs and benefits if they sell to minors, which is enough of an incentive to prevent it from happening.

Taylor said allowing the state police to run similar checks at the state stores would provide a good basis for comparing the effectiveness of the state system in preventing sales of alcohol to minors. Opponents of the attempt to privatize the state liquor stores frequently point to higher rates of underage purchasing in other states as a reason to keep the state system in Pennsylvania intact, he said.

The issue could become a part of a larger debate on the merits of privatizing the liquor system.

House Majority Leader Mike Turzai (R-Allegheny) plans to introduce legislation to privatize the liquor stores, turning them into licensed establishments--theoretically subject to the same compliance checks as all other licensed alcohol retailers in the state.

Steve Miskin, spokesperson for Rep. Turzai, said the double standard for enforcement was secondary to the question of whether government should even be selling alcohol in the first place.

“In the end, we should not be in the business of selling booze,” said Miskin. “I don’t think anyone could make the argument that selling liquor is a core function of government.”

Rep. Turzai expects to introduce a privatization bill within the next six weeks.