By Lookout Staff

October 3, 2024 -- Santa Monica police will have more resources to combat "alcohol-related harm" in the city after receiving an $80,229 grant from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC).

The funds "will be used to help prevent alcoholic beverage sales to minors and obviously intoxicated patrons (and) illegal solicitations of alcohol," police officials said Thursday.

Part of $3 million in grants distributed by the agency statewide, the money also will be used to fight "other criminal activities such as the sale and possession of illegal drugs."

Reported incidents of narcotics climbed from 229 in 2022 to 286 last year, a precipitous drop from the 550 incidents reported in 2019, according to crime data for the city.

Similarly, incidents of public intoxication dropped from 485 in 2019 to 248 last year.

The grant, said Police Chief Ramon Batista, "is important to the Santa Monica Police Department in order to increase protection for youth and to address crime at problem locations.”

The grant is one of nearly 50 awarded in California to local law enforcement agencies through ABC’s Alcohol Policing Partnership (APP) program.

These grants strengthen local law enforcement efforts by combining them with ABC agents who have expertise in alcoholic beverage laws, agency officials said.

“The Alcohol Policing Partnership program can improve the quality of life in neighborhoods,” said ABC Director Joseph McCullough. “We’ve seen a real difference in the communities where the grant program’s resources have been invested.”

Some of the funds are used to help keep alcohol away from minors by staging Decoy Shoulder Tap operations to nab adults who buy alcohol for minors.

The California Supreme Court paved the way for Shoulder Tap operations when it ruled in 1994 that minor decoys could be used by law enforcement to check whether stores were selling alcohol to minors.

The APP program was created in 1995 to strengthen partnerships between ABC and local law enforcement agencies.