DeKalb police have received help in cracking down on underage bar patrons.

According to Lt. Carl Leoni of the DeKalb Police Department, the department is able to hire officers at overtime rates to perform more bar checks and DUI patrols, thanks to grants sought out by the Ben Gordon Center.

Kris Povlsen, project director of the Preventing Underage Drinking project, said the center applies for grants and oversees the disbursement of the money. For example, it pays the department back for the officer’s time after the number of arrests made is sent to the center.

The grant money was received in July 2002 and the project is scheduled to last two years.

The grant targets compliance checks, which allow officers to enter bars to ensure bartenders and owners check IDs. Povlsen said the center is working hand-in-hand with the police department to train bar owners on checking IDs, holding bouncers responsible for the admittance of minors and even sending minors into the bars to see if they are let in or seeing if they can get someone else to buy alcohol for them.

“We’re going to use our share of [the grant money] and do as much as we can,” Leoni said. “There’s a lot we can do.”

Leoni said the police also were hoping to use some of the money for campus parties.

“It would be nice not to have a reason to be at those parties though,” Leoni conceded.

Povlsen felt the same way.

“I would like to not have to fine anybody,” Povlsen said. “I feel pretty confident that most of our establishments do comply.”

Minors arrested by the officers executing compliance checks are given a mail-in complaint form, formerly called a mini-citation. They are cited most often for entering and remaining in a tavern as a minor, which is a city ordinance violation.

Leoni explained that the offenders technically are arrested, although they are not taken into custody. If the offenders choose not to pay the fines, they will have to go to court. Leoni compared the citation to a traffic ticket, which is also like an arrest where the perpetrator is not taken into custody.

“There is a record of the arrest at the police department,” Leoni said, “but it won’t come up on a records check.”

Povlsen said that this grant is not a project to catch people, but just to make students think twice about trying to obtain alcohol illegally.

“I want students to say, ‘DeKalb is aggressive. I’m not going to go into bars to try to buy alcohol illegally,’” Povlsen said.