The Continuing Story of ID for Alcohol Purchases

You may remember the unpopular law that required an ID check for anyone purchasing alcohol for carry-out in Indiana. Everyone. The idea was to force an age check to catch minors trying to buy alcohol. But it seemed a bit ridiculous to also require someone to card a 60 year-old as well.

So, last month, the law was changed back. Now only those 40 and younger have to be carded. Still a stretch, but at least reasonable. And now, there’s evidence that the emphasis on checking ages has actually worked – not that it’s worked to keep alcohol out of the hands of minors, but that businesses are really checking, at least the vast majority are.

To test this, police run around the state with 18 to 20 year-olds and send them in to make a purchase, or try to. The percentage of establishments failing the test (and ticketed because of it) was more than 40% in 2009. But this year, after some 5,000 “inspections” the rates are even over 10%. For bars it was 8.8% and for liquor stores a wonderful 4.3%. That’s a great improvement over 2009.

Now, with the “check everyone’s ID” law modified, we get a kind of scientific experiment. High failure rate with loose ID checks, then the strict law and the percents drop like a stone. Will the rates rise now that the law has eased off to an “under 40” standard or will the percentages jump up again?

The other question is whether ID checks have anything to do with it at all. Maybe the hullabaloo that came with the stricter law just made people more aware of the issue. Businesses don’t want to get fined, and there’s little incentive to sell to minors, but sloppiness (and a few fake IDs as well) can lead to a fine. A few fines later and everyone gets more careful.

What will be ironic is if the stats swing bad again and another round of legislation is passed.