Pike County on Excise Police nice list | News

The number of Indiana businesses willing to sell alcohol to minors continues to be at an all-time low as a result of inspections by Indiana State Excise Police.

From Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 2012, excise officers working with underage youth in the Survey for Alcohol Compliance conducted 9,978 inspections, with 504 failures – a 5.204% failure rate. That’s down slightly from a 5.591% failure rate in 2011.

Pike County was one of 17 counties in the state whose clerks did not sell any alchol to minors.  One of eight Spencer County businesses sold to an underage buyer.

Since the Alcohol & Tobacco Commission launched its initiative in April 2007, the number of Indiana businesses willing to sell alcoholic beverages to minors has fallen every year. At that time, 33.1% of businesses were willing to sell alcohol to minors without checking identification. Rates have steadily declined since that time to 5.2% last year.

Among the businesses most willing to sell to minors in 2012 were farm wineries (30.0%), horse tracks, satellite facilities and gaming sites (26.7%), historic river vessels (23.3%), and hotels (14.3%).

Least likely to sell alcohol to minors were civic centers (no failures), economic redevelopment projects (no failures), private clubs (1.5%), drug stores (2.0%) and grocery stores (3.3%).

Package stores were willing to sell alcohol to minors in 7.7% of inspections, while restaurants and bars were willing to sell in 6.8% of inspections.

Scott County had the highest failure rate at 40%, followed by Crawford County (37.5%), Brown County (33.3%), Warren County (33.3%), Owen County (23.1%), Orange County (22.2%) and Marion County (21.2%).

Seventeen counties had no failures: Adams, Benton, Carroll, Cass, Clay, Fountain, Jefferson, LaGrange, Newton, Parke, Pike, Pulaski, Putnam, Rush, Tipton, Union and Wells.

State Excise Police officers will continue to conduct alcohol-compliance inspections in order to reduce the number of businesses willing to sell alcoholic beverages to minors. As the enforcement division of the Indiana Alcohol and Tobacco Commission, the primary mission of the Indiana State Excise Police is to promote public safety by enforcing Indiana’s Alcoholic Beverage Code. While excise officers have the authority to enforce any state law, they focus primarily on alcohol, tobacco and related laws.