It’s Friday night, the mood is right and you’re standing outside of a bar because the bouncer took your fake ID. You can thank Project 21, local area bars and liquor store bouncers for that.

Project 21 is a program started by the Illinois Liquor Control Commission during fall 2001 to combat underage drinking.

“I think the amount of kids trying to get in has gone down significantly,” said Jeff Dobie, co-owner of Fatty’s Sports Bar and Grill, 1312 W. Lincoln Highway.

Dobie thinks Project 21 signs posted outside of his bar help deter underage drinking.

“Kids have gotten wise to the fact that they can’t just show any bad fake ID,” he said.

In August, DeKalb held an informal meeting inviting all of the current liquor licensees to train them how to spot fraudulent IDs.

Representatives from the Illinois Liquor Control Commission and the Office of the Secretary of State, as well as Mayor Greg Sparrow and DeKalb Police Chief Bill Feithen, attended the August meeting.

“They had about 34 people at the last one,” said Lt. Carl Leoni of the DeKalb Police Department.

In addition to checking bars, DeKalb police frequently check liquor stores.

“We’ve had good relationships with local liquor store owners,” Leoni said.

He added that the department had plain-clothed officers in liquor stores checking for fake IDs, but it had no reason to do so because of the good relationships the department has with store owners.

“We educate our employees of what we learned,” said Julie Lundeen, owner and manager of Lundeen Discount Liquors, 1030 Arcadia Drive.

Lundeen said in addition to checking IDs when the purchase is made, they have a bouncer at the door on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights.

“DeKalb has an ordinance that says you can’t come into a liquor store if you aren’t 21,” Lundeen said. She added that they have confiscated seven or eight fake IDs since opening this summer.

Leoni said the user of a fake ID can have his or her license suspended for a year.

“That’s the student’s biggest complaint about getting busted,” Leoni said. “It’s a big shock.”

Leoni said it is difficult to determine how many fake IDs are used because many technically are not fake. He added that most of the fake IDs used by students actually are other people’s driver’s licenses.

Ray Ng, a sophomore electrical engineering major, said he knew one friend who actually had a manufactured fake ID. The ID was created using his friend’s computer and was the older, laminated style driver’s license.

His friend has yet to be caught.

Leoni said the newer IDs are harder to manufacture and that most of the older, manufactured fakes were from different states.