Sting Operations by Police Department in Santa Maria

Source: Santa Maria Police Department

On Thursday, June 13, 2019 the Santa Maria Police Department conducted an ABC “Shoulder Tap” and a “Minor Decoy” operation throughout the City of Santa Maria. These programs are designed to reduce youth access to alcoholic beverages. These type of operations are conducted by local law enforcement throughout the state of California. The details were plan for this week due to it being the first week our kids are out of school on summer break.

During the “Minor Decoy” operation a minor decoy, under the age of 21, attempted to purchase an alcoholic beverages, under the direct supervision of SMPD undercover officers. The decoy entered three “off-sale establishments” and three “on-sale establishments.” An “off-sale establishment” is an establishment that conducts retail sales of alcoholic beverages for consumption off the premises where it was sold. An “on-sale establishment” is an establishment that conducts retail sales of alcoholic beverages for consumption on the premises where it was sold. We are pleased to inform our community that none of the businesses sold to the minor decoy. 

During the “Shoulder Tap” operation, a minor decoy under the direct supervision of officers, attempts to get persons from the community to purchase alcoholic beverages from an ABC licensed establishments within our city. This operation was attempted at two different “off-sale establishments” located in the City of Santa Maria. We are pleases to say that none of the 12 people contacted agreed to purchase alcohol for our minor decoy. All of the individuals contacted did a great job by refusing to purchase alcohol for the minor decoy. 

These type of programs are intended to reduce the availability of alcoholic beverages to minors; statistics show that teens have a greater rate of drunken driving crashes than adults.

Funding for these programs are provided by the California ABC Alcohol Policing Partnership grant which was awarded to the Santa Maria Police Department and the City of Guadalupe for these types of operations.