Reducing Alcohol Consumption
Police inspections of bars and enforcement of liquor laws enocourages bar owners to adhere to responsible managment practices
Training and encouraging bar staff to serve responsibly and monitor patrons’ drinking can help reduce the risk of violence in the bar. smartserve.org
Establishing responsible beverage service programs.† Responsible beverage service training can be effective in reducing intoxication and assaults, especially where there is community support for these requirements and adequate enforcement of them.[45] Responsible beverage service can be promoted through voluntary or mandatory training programs. Bar owners and managers, as well as serving staff, should receive training. These programs are effective in changing servers’ knowledge and attitudes, but do not affect how often they deny service to drunken customers, unless they are supported by regular monitoring and consistent sanctions for violations. [46]
Responsible beverage service programs include training bar staff to adopt responsible serving practices, and encouraging bar owners and managers to adopt responsible business practices and policies. The most common elements of these programs include the following:
† As of 2000, at least 23 states had server-training legislation. In 11 of these states, the laws provide incentives for establishments that provide training to their employees, while in the remaining 12 states, server training is mandatory (Mosher et al. 2002).
Monitoring drinking to prevent drunkenness. In general, servers are not good at determining whether customers are drunk because the signs and signals used in that assessment are largely subjective (slurred speech, clumsiness, mood changes). The best estimator of a customer’s blood alcohol content is the number of drinks served, but given the size and layout of many bars, the amount of alcohol consumed is very difficult to track.[47] Further, servers cannot know how much a customer has drunk before arriving, what or if he or she has eaten, or how long he or she intends to stay at the bar—all of which will affect the server’s judgments about continued service. [48] Training should focus on the most obvious and reliable indicators of drunkenness and improved communication among multiple servers to enable better monitoring.
While it may take a long time for enforcement officials to witness bar staff serving drunken patrons, the benefits appear to be worth the costs.[49] For the most part, it is still too easy for both drunken and underage drinkers to get served in bars. [50]
Promoting slower drinking rates. Several practices encourage patrons to drink quickly, such as announcing “last call,” having happy hours, serving multiple drinks at one time, and tolerating “chugging” contests and other drinking games. Eliminating these practices can slow the rate at which patrons feel compelled to drink.
Prohibiting underage drinking. This response prevents less physically and emotionally mature patrons from getting drunk. It is unclear, though, what effect allowing underage patrons into bars, even if they are not served alcohol, has on the assault problem.
Providing reduced-alcohol or nonalcoholic beverages. Offering reduced-alcohol or nonalcoholic beverages can lower patrons’ drunkenness level, patrons who might otherwise be potential assailants and/or victims. Regardless, the risk of injury from assault is reduced. There are virtually no drawbacks to this response as long as some patrons will drink these beverages.
Requiring or encouraging food service with alcohol service. Eating while drinking slows the rate of alcohol absorption into the bloodstream. Serving food also helps create an atmosphere that is not exclusively centered on alcohol consumption, and can attract a more diverse, and possibly less aggressive, clientele.[51]
Discouraging alcohol price discounts. Reducing the price of drinks during happy hours significantly increases consumption by both light and heavy drinkers. [52] The competitive pressure to reduce drink prices actually threatens many bars’ profitability, so some owners actually appreciate restrictions on price discounting.
Establishing and enforcing server liability laws. In many jurisdictions, alcohol servers and bar owners can be held legally liable either for the harm drunken patrons cause (through private civil suits) or for merely serving drunken people (through statute enforcement by the police or liquor-license regulators).† Server liability laws alone have had mixed results as an incentive for bar owners to adopt and enforce responsible (beverage) service policies and practices.[53] In particular, the relatively low enforcement rate, the owner’s profit motive, and the server’s reliance on tips as income can decrease these laws’ deterrent effect.[54]
† Erenberg and Hacker (1997) report that 36 states have some form of dram-shop liability law, and refer to the Model Alcoholic Beverage Retail Licensee Liability Act of 1985.
Reducing the concentration and/or number of bars. There is growing evidence that the concentration of bars in an area is related to that area’s crime levels and patterns, although the exact nature of the relationship is not yet clear.[55] We cannot yet say how many bars in a small area are too many, but evidence does suggest there is such a threshold. Police agencies can support efforts to reduce the concentration or number of bars through zoning and liquor-license enforcement.