A decoy operation recently targeted nine Palm Desert bars and restaurants to determine if they serve alcohol to people under the legal age, the Riverside County Sheriff's Department said.
"The Minor Decoy Program allows local law enforcement agencies to use persons under 20 years of age as decoys to purchase alcoholic beverages from licensed premises," Deputy Sgt. Varon Potter said in a June 25 news release.
Three servers received misdemeanor citations for "violation of 25658(a) Business and Professions Code, Furnishing an Alcoholic Beverage to a Minor," Potter said.
The decoy operation was a collaborative effort involving deputies from the Palm Desert Business District and special enforcement teams and agents from the California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, the release stated.
The California Supreme Court ruled in 1994 that the use of decoys was not entrapment, and as a result, does not violate due process requirements, Potter said. Since the ruling, the Decoy Program has become an effective method utilized by hundreds of law-enforcement agencies.
The penalties for selling alcohol to a minor vary. A first offense can result in a fine or suspension of a license, a second sale within a three-year period could result in an automatic license suspension, and a third sale to a minor within a three-year period can result in a license revocation, according to the release.