Local News

Liquor privatization tied to thefts


Jun 02, 2014

Researchers looking at the effects of liquor privatization found one in 10 high school-age minors who drink alcohol reported stealing alcohol in the past year.

Julia Dilley, one of the research scientists working on the ongoing project, said prior to privatization a survey asked minors where they would go to find booze.

Dilley said, "So few kids marked 'stole,' we took it off (the survey) as an option.”

Not anymore.

Law enforcement officials around the state also have reported a surge in liquor-related thefts and said they believe the bulk is being driven by juveniles.

Andi Ervin, Executive Director of the Okanogan County Community Coalition, which works to enforce underage drinking laws says locally, an issue we continue to struggle with is theft of liquor.  

Ervin said “After six months of pretty intense liquor theft problems, WalMart did the responsible thing and redesigned their liquor section.” She said, “Since the redesign, we know of no alcohol theft by youth reported to the police.” Ervin said the frustrating problem right now is that other major retailers in Omak have not redesigned their liquor sections, and appear to not be consistently reporting theft to the police.

Ervin said, “The Prevention community in Washington State has been urging the Washington State Legislature to consider taxing alcohol "at the dock" -- so that retailers might be more motivated to report theft, since they have some monetary skin in the game before it even hits their shelves.” She said, “Washington State wins with this strategy, because they don't lose valuable tax dollars due to ineffective security policies in some of the stores selling liquor.” 

In addition, and at the very least, we are trying to change the law so that alcohol retailers are required to report all theft of alcohol to the Liquor Control Board.  Rep. Chris Hurst, D-Enumclaw, has introduced legislation that would do just that.  Hurst says he believes the onus is on the retailers to do what they can to combat theft, and that they should be held responsible for not doing more to stop it.

“Initiative 1183 changed the landscape dramatically,” Ervin says, “by increasing both legal and illegal access to liquor.”

She said, “We have always had an alcohol theft problem.  But we haven't always had a liquor theft problem.  The risk of alcohol poisoning is significantly higher when what a kid is stealing is liquor instead of a beer.”

 


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