Police in Port Wentworth conducted a follow-up undercover operation Friday targeting sale of alcohol to minors after a sting last month netted several arrests.
“The department received several complaints about businesses selling alcohol to underage customers,” said Police Chief Matt Libby, the city’s director of public safety. “We turned the complaints over to our Crime Impact Unit and they developed an operation to combat the problem.”
The plan called for an undercover police officer and a confidential informant, both whom are 20, to be sent into the establishments that sell alcohol, said Sgt. James Hollingsworth, who commands the unit.
The officer would then attempt to purchase an alcoholic beverage. If the sale was denied, the officer would leave the business and not return. If the officer was able to purchase an alcoholic beverage, the person who sold the beverage to the officer was arrested and charged with furnishing alcohol to a minor, Hollingsworth said.
“Our main goal with this operation was to make sure the businesses not checked in the first operation were in compliance and that the businesses checked previously were still in compliance,” Hollingsworth said. “If the clerk did the right thing and asked our undercover officer for ID, they did not even know they were part of the operation. Going in to this operation we felt that most of our businesses would be in compliance with the law.”
Of the 21 businesses Port Wentworth that are licensed to sell alcoholic beverages, the undercover officer and confidential informant were able to visit all of them. In five of the businesses, the underage officer was able to successfully purchase alcohol without an ID.
The businesses that were in compliance will receive a letter advising them of the operation and that the under age officer was unable to purchase from them, Hollingsworth said.