LA MESA POLICE TO CONTINUE ALCOHOL DECOY PROGRAM

Printer-friendly versionPrinter-friendly version Share this

 

November 24, 2015 (La Mesa)—La Mesa Police Chief Walt Vasquez has announced that after shoulder-tap operations using minor decoys led to three arrests, police will extend the operations through July.

The California Alcoholic Beverage Control board awarded a $34,363 grant to La Mesa Police in July 2015 to battle alcohol-related crime, one of 44 such grants provided to local law enforcement agencies statewide.

“This is important to the City of La Mesa in order to increase protection for youth and to keep our community safe,” Chief Vasquez says. 

On November 7th, a Shoulder Tap Operation was conducted in the City of La Mesa.  During this operation, a minor decoy was used to stand outside of   convenience stores and solicit customers to buy them alcohol.  If the customer agreed and furnished the minor decoy with alcohol, undercover officers would make an arrest. 

During this operation, six convenience store locations were visited.  Three arrests were made for furnishing alcohol to a minor.  In one instance the arrestee also had an outstanding felony warrant.  There was an additional arrest made for possession of drug paraphernalia.            

“In an effort to keep our community and our youth safe, the La Mesa Police Department and ABC will continue these types of operations through July of 2016,” says Chief Vasquez.

 

LMPDWalterVasquez.jpg


Error message

Support community news in the public interest! As nonprofit news, we rely on donations from the public to fund our reporting -- not special interests. Please donate to sustain East County Magazine's local reporting and/or wildfire alerts at https://www.eastcountymedia.org/donate to help us keep people safe and informed across our region.