Narrator:
As communities around the country are learning, the key to effective prevention is to use multiple strategies, in multiple settings, toward achieving one common goal. One particularly potent strategy is enforcement. Like many communities, Cambridge, Massachusetts, has used sting operations as a major tool to enforce existing regulations and prevent underage drinking.

Richard V. Scali, executive officer, Cambridge License Commission:
Well, there’s two different kinds of sting operations that we conduct. There’s package store stings, and there’s also restaurant stings. They would start off in our office here, speaking with our investigator, and we take them down and out to a random number of stores, on a computer-generated list, and we send them in, and give them a five-dollar bill, and have them go and try and buy a six-pack of beer or something. They are not to present any ID, and just bring the beer to the counter and see if they’re carded or able to buy.

Store clerk:
Can I see an ID, please?

Richard V. Scali:
And then they will document that all as information to be given to me or present that to the commissioners for disciplinary hearing.

Narrator:
After years of practicing this traditional approach, the city decided to reexamine its policy.

Richard V. Scali:
We had had a number of underage drinking violations at restaurants and bars, and the commissioners wanted to involve the licensees in a more positive way in terms of doing something, as opposed to just paying a fine. So the chairman at the time decided to make them, as a penalty, become part of a group, and it was called CLAB, which is Cambridge Licensee Advisory Board, and this group actually started out with about four or five or six different violators who were ordered to report in six months back to the commissioners with some initiatives that would show that they were working on underage drinking.

Jack Vondras, director, Cambridge Prevention Coalition:
When the first group of licensees heard about this, they were quite angry. They didn’t want to have anything to do with this, and some of them just wanted to pay their fines. Others were kind of intrigued with what this was all about, and so I’d say about 25 licensees had attended the first meeting, and the big reaction from the licensees were that they were very angry.

James R. Tipping, president, CLAB, and owner, Sail Loft Restaurant:
An officer representing the city of Cambridge came in and attempted to get served, and, in fact, we did fail on the servicement. And I run a tight organization, and I conduct regular seminars both in employee staff meetings as well as pre-meal meetings about the importance of paying attention to who you serve, getting proper identification if they don’t look at least 30. But as in any company, there is nothing that’s flawless, you have someone that lets their guard down, and so, as a result of that, we get involved with CLAB.

Narrator:
Successful prevention programs include a number of key strategies. In Cambridge, enforcement, policy, and education were combined in a coordinated approach.

Jack Vondras:
I think that enforcement is very important. So you can hold sting operations with your licensees, you can penalize them, and that will have a direct effect on the lowering of alcohol use by your population. But I think that we can go beyond that, in looking at how do we reinforce policies that will be standardized throughout the entire industry within the local municipality? And third, how do we use education to reinforce both of those? In this case, what I like about this initiative is that we’re looking at all three and how they all fit together.

Narrator:
The Cambridge Licensee Advisory Board drew on all three of these key strategies by compiling a manual describing policies and enforcement sanctions regarding alcohol distribution and sales. Mandatory educational sessions were held for every licensee in the city to review these procedures, and businesses were encouraged to conduct similar training seminars for their staffs. These and other advisory board initiatives contributed to creating rates of alcohol use among city youth that were significantly lower than those of similar communities.

Richard V. Scali:
It starts off very slowly, and it may take three or four or five years before people feel really comfortable with the changes and with getting involved. The only way that we got people involved, really, was to kind of make them go to these meetings, make them go to these different committee hearings, so that they could see that they could do something.

James R. Tipping:
Like anything, you need to set realistic goals in the beginning. If you set your standards so high that nothing’s going to be accomplished, there’s a lot of frustration that goes with that.

So if nothing gets done, after the first two or three meetings, the number will start to fall off and the support will go away. So set your goals realistically. Identify something that you want to accomplish.

Jack Vondras:
I think it is really important that we look at any target audience and engage them where they are. You can’t do prevention work around alcohol, tobacco, and drugs and not look at the alcohol retail industry. It is a big component of what goes on in this city.

James R. Tipping:
We do have a responsibility in our industry, as in any other industry. We need to stay, keep the lines of communication open, both from the city side as well as from the business community side—the licensee’s side—and I found that, over the years that I’ve been involved in this organization, and, really, the relationship that has grown from this with the city and with our organization has been tremendous.

Richard V. Scali:
Most communities will view their License Commission and their police departments in an adversarial position—that you are fighting against them and the licensees are going to be penalized, and therefore it’s all you’re interested in—but the truth of the matter is that when the License Commissions and the police departments and the city clerk’s office in some cities and towns work together with the licensees and the other community members, community groups, prevention coalitions, it gives a more positive light to the license commissions and the people who regulate these restaurants.