Law Enforcment Cracking Down On Underage Selling

Some police departments have been stepping up compliance checks at stores and bars around the Little Rock area. From January First to yesterday, Alcohol Beverage Control agents and local law enforcement have run more than 14-hundred compliance checks using minors with legal IDs. Kenny Heroman, assistant director of enforcement at ABC, said 351 resulted in sales to minors. That`s a noncompliance rate of 24-point-eight percent. At North Little Rock, the police department has conducted more checks in the past few weeks as it nears the expiration of a grant. Lieutenant Tracy Roulston said the grant from Arkansans for Drug-Free Youth pays for the manpower to do the checks. Roulston said North Little Rock police have done more than 200 checks this year, at random times during the day. In most cases, a plain-clothes police officer will be in the store at the same time as a minor trying to buy alcohol. The minors carry their genuine I-D`s, and present them if asked by the clerk. If the clerk asks for their age, they must tell the truth. Roulston said that, even with those restrictions, 15 to 20 percent of checks in North Little Rock end in a violation and arrest.