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Stores are complying with tobacco sales rules
DPS says shop-owners rarely sold to its decoy operatives
By Daniel Hindin
According to Capt. Chuck Eaneff of the Sunnyvale Department of Public Safety (DPS), most local merchants now know not to sell tobacco or alcohol to underage youths. The DPS knows this because its run ongoing decoy operations to test shopkeepers and their employees on their identification policies, and they found the results encouraging.
The DPS seeks out young volunteers to enter stores and attempt to purchase a pack of cigarettes or some alcohol. Their underage decoys attempted 80 tobacco purchases and 45 liquor purchases in 2000 and only succeeded six times, all six of which involved tobacco only.
"We've been running this program for over 15 years," Eaneff says. "It appears to be successful in driving down the number of underage sales; we're beginning to give less citations as the program goes on."
Eaneff makes it clear that the DPS program doesn't aim to catch the merchants selling to underage youths.
"The goal is to educate and get voluntary compliance," he says. "This is an awareness program. We send letters to all of the sellers in the city, and we tell them that we run a decoy program."
According to Eaneff, if they catch a provider selling to one of their decoys, they give the storeowner a citation and offer education on tobacco and alcohol rules. Eaneff notes no store has ever lost its tobacco or liquor license as a result of the program.
"After we cite someone, we turn the report over to the California Alcoholic Beverage Control," he says. "The ABC can then determine whether they'll fine them or suspend their license."
The DPS recruits their underage volunteers from the Sunnyvale Explore Post, city volunteers and local high schools.
"We're open to decoys from any source as long as we get their parents' permission," Eaneff says. "We use decoys that are clearly underage; we're not putting infants in there, but we're not going to send in someone who is 17 and 11 months."
Eaneff emphasizes the decoy operation remains only a part of their fight to keep youths away from tobacco, alcohol and other drugs. The DPS sends representatives to schools in order to educate students, as well.
"We have a special interest around the schools," Eaneff says. "Tobacco is essentially the gateway drug. We hope [our program] has a preventative effect for other drug use; so far we are pleased with the results."
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
