Safety And Licensing Committee Discusses Alcohol License Demerits With Chadwick’s Bar Owner, Technology To Identify Fake IDs

The Safety and Licensing Committee met 03/01/2023. The meeting lasted a little over 20 minutes and  the bulk of it was taken up with a discussion with the owners of Chadwick’s Bar on College Avenue about the demerits they had received on their alcohol license and the steps they were taking to correct the issue that led to them receiving the demerits.

On a couple of instances last year, alcohol had been served to underaged patrons in Chadwick’s. This resulted in 149 demerit points. In December of 2021, the Common Council enacted changes to the alcohol license demerit system, to go into effect 07/01/2022. Those changes mean that any bar owner with 150-199 within a 24 month period could see their license suspended for 10-90 days, and if they accrue 200 or more demerit points within a 36 months period, they could face license revocation. [So, it would look like Chadwick’s was on the edge of facing some fairly serious consequences.]

The changes implemented in 2021 also required bar owners with 25-149 demerit points to appear before the Safety and Licensing Committee and explain the efforts they were taking to change the issues that resulted in the demerit points. As a result, Philip, the owner, appeared before the Safety and Licensing Committee. He was, in fact, the first bar owner to have to make such an appearance under the new rules.

A transcript of the discussion is available for download:

He talked a little about the problems bar operators had in identifying fake IDs. Apparently, good quality, expensive fake IDs are available from China. Once a patron is let into a bar, they won’t typically get asked to show their ID again unless a police officer comes in, or they look really young, or they do something wrong.

Philip did some investigating and found several options for ID scanners that could identify flawless-looking fake IDs. He shared videos with the committee of a number of different products and showed them the product he ended up purchasing. The name of the one he ended up purchasing was not mentioned out loud in the meeting, so I’m not sure which one he went with. He told the committee that when he tried out the scanner over a weekend, it was able to catch five flawless fake IDs, and that it was able to catch between 85% and 90% of fake IDs.

He had talked with other bar owners on College Avenue he was friendly with and they were interested in purchasing scanners as well. A program existed that would allow the scanners to be linked together so that if a patron was banned at one establishment with these scanners, they could be banned at all the establishments that utilized the scanners. Philip raised the possibility of doing a pilot program and seeking grants to fund the purchase of scanners.

Alderperson Nate Wolff (District 12) asked Police Chief Polly Olson to comment on this new technology. She said that the scanners were new to her, but they looked promising and she was interested in seeing more. Ultimately, though, any technology depended on people using it correctly. “I think the other issue is ensuring that there’s staff at the front door or wherever people are entering at all times. Because if there’s gaps in those services, such as somebody’s not being at the door, and then you’re assuming a bartender is going to check, you know, an ID, we’re finding that that’s where some of the gap is in these getting through or is happening.”

To that point, Philip had also met with Lieutenant Adam Nagel of the Police Department and discussed ways to heighten security such as increasing staff, increasing the bouncers’ hours, having better cameras, and making sure the door was always watched.

Overall, the committee seemed pleased with the efforts he had taken to purchase these scanners and try to stop underaged individuals from patronizing his bar. Alderperson Sheri Hartzheim (District 13) encouraged him to talk to Appleton Downtown Incorporated to see how they could help in bringing this to other business owners.

Alderperson Alex Schultz (District 9) was understanding of the issues surrounding identifying fake IDs. “The ability for minors to get legitimate looking IDs […] has increased and become far easier. I have a daughter who is 19. And she has done this same thing and probably got into bars where she shouldn’t be. Easy access, easily done, pay the fee, get in. And it’s far different than when I was at that age trying to get into a bar. And the onus, of course, is on either the door staff or the bouncer to check those IDs. And you can only do so much.”

In light of the fact that the bar owner had taken reasonable steps to prevent serving underaged people going forward and in light of the fact that he had enough demerits that he would potentially be facing stiff consequences if he accrued any more (even if those demerits came from incidents that happened before the scanners were implemented), Alderperson Schultz asked, “Is there something we can do with the citations to prevent something happening with the business?”

Assistant City Attorney Darrin Glad responded that there was a statutory process for taking any action against a license, but that was outside the scope of the discussion currently taking place. [The implication being that it shouldn’t be talked about at the meeting.]

View full meeting details and video here: https://cityofappleton.legistar.com/MeetingDetail.aspx?ID=1084561&GUID=A8DF7C98-0013-4128-82AA-C1F46AB2F6BE