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One toe over the line: Enforcing city liquor regulations can be a game of inches
By adamg on Tue, 10/28/2014 - 1:37pm
At a hearing this morning, a lawyer for Sweetwater Cafe and a Boston Police detective agreed the detective was holding a photo of a woman with a beer bottle in one hand. But was she still in the area in the Boylston Place Alley designated for the cafe's patio area or just outside it?
Attorney Dennis Quilty said the woman was obviously under the awning the cafe uses to keep patio goers dry and so not "consuming alcohol outside licensed patio area." But Det. William Gallagher countered: "Disagree."
The Boston Licensing Board, which heard the testimony, decides Thursday whom it agrees with. And if it agrees with Gallagher and Sgt. Det. William Mulvey, it has to decide what punishment, if any, to mete out.
Gallagher and Mulvey told the board they were on routine licensed-premises patrol around 11:40 p.m. on Oct. 4, when they arrived in the Alley and noticed the woman with the beer bottle in hand. They took several photos - which were presented to the board today - then went to find the cafe manager to issue her a citation.
Quilty, however, said the woman, a former employee, was still within the area marked off by barrels as the designated patio. But even if she weren't, he and manager Jennifer Clarke said, the bottle was empty.
Mulvey said that given the Alley's unique layout - several bars around an alley - detectives have to be vigilant to keep what is clearly the public part of the alley from becoming a drinking hangout.
Mulvey also asked the board for guidance on a related issue. If the woman was still on the designated patio area, she was definitely standing outside the area outfitted with tables - Can he and other detectives cite bars and restaurants in such cases?
Board Chairwoman Nicole Murati Ferrer said the board would take each case up individually rather than issuing some sort of blanket rule. Board member Suzanne Ianalla, however, said that in this case, Sweetwater Cafe's ISD and fire permits make no distinction between sitting and standing patrons. In some cases, liquor holders in Boston do have restrictions that limit alcohol service to people eating meals.
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Comments
I'm so glad my tax dollars go
I'm so glad my tax dollars go to this asinine puritanical persecution of harmless liquor consumption instead of leaning on clubs which have all sorts of scummy/thuggy behavior going on at closing hour.
I really hope that in this
I really hope that in this case we can all agree that this is a very poor use of police and the city's resources in general. I just wish that with all the time that is spent arguing over "inches" to fine a restaurant, maybe the Licensing Board could actually---award some of those new licenses that were promised to Roxbury, Mattapan, and Dorchester, and maybe BPD could use its detectives to...I don't know, maybe investigate our many unsolved murder cases since we are lagging the country in this area.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news_opinion/local_coverage/2014/07/boston_l...
Community Policing 101
This is not the police deciding that these rules need to be enforced. There are studies that show that strict enforcement of certain regulations in certain areas leads to a healthier community with satisfied residents (outside bars, homeless shelters, hostels/residential inns, liquor stores, fast food joints, Train stations, etc). A large number of resident complaints to the City are regarding nuisance type violations (loitering/public drinking/noise/graffitti) and the resulting crimes from these violations if they go unchecked (indiscreet drug dealing, fighting, medical ODs, etc)
Adam kind of outlines some of this below, but why don't some of you go to these meetings and ask the board/police these questions?
Enforcing public consumption
Enforcing public consumption is essential to maintaining public safety. That's why no one lives or visits Paris or London anymore. There's anarchy in the street everywhere thanks to people drinking in public.
If the woman was still on the
How can you ask this question without coming to the sudden sobering conclusion that your entire job is a joke?
# Heros # Boston Strong
Det. Gallagher and Mulvey out doing hero's work, keep fighting the good fight out there boys, providing a much need service to our community. Who knows what chaos may have occurred had her foot gotten ALL the way off the patio.
They are useless!
They are useless!
Come on now
How are we supposed to win the Olympic bid if people are pushing the boundaries with their Bud Lights? That alley is the absolute worst part of the city within a quarter mile radius of the alleged crime, no question about it. We must fight to maintain that world class status and ensure these establishments keep their unruly patrons under control.
Wasn't Emerson going to shut all the bars?
I could've sworn reading something like that a couple years ago.
Oh no, we can't have that
"detectives have to be vigilant to keep what is clearly the public part of the alley from becoming a drinking hangout."
Nope, can't have "drinking hangouts" in this city. Ugh. The kind of people that want to get into politics are the worst people to be in politics.
In conclusion
Someone associated with the bar (owner? Manager?) has pissed off the detectives.
Instead of sneaking around
Instead of sneaking around taking pictures and wasting hours at hearings, why didn't the cop just ask the woman, and maybe also the bar manager, to stay inside the designated area?
The reason
The licensing unit is there to ensure the city's bars and restaurants comply with city and state regulations. Some may seem trivial and outdated in this day and age (the whole drinking-in-public thing, at least until it's going on at 3 a.m. outside your window), some are pretty important (like making sure restaurants don't block or even just bolt shut their emergency exits - something that seems to come up several times a year - even Top of the Hub, you know, up 52 stories in the air, got cited recently for a blocked emergency exit - and got a warning to not do it again).
So I gather the theory is that they're looking for things that could become chronic problems. If a bar is letting one customer drink outside the line when they show up, they might be letting others do that. The problem could get exacerbated. A citation might convince the bar or restaurant owner to shape up. Doing nothing, or being nice and just telling the woman to move a foot closer to a table won't correct the behavior.
But giving the manager a
But giving the manager a verbal warning could work.
Adam, you're entering a world of pain.
This isn't 'Nam.
I love the smell of licensing in the morning
I guess I'm a government-board wonk - I like covering this sort of stuff.
is Det. William Gallagher the
is Det. William Gallagher the only one around here that gives a shit about the rules?
Both feet in-bounds when she had control of the beer bottle?
Or was one foot out? Again, no proof there was beer in the bottle that may have only looked like a beer bottle. ABC should consult with Gronk.
They don't get paid by the task
If you got paid X to chase an armed criminal, and X to chase a person holding a beer outdoors, which would you pursue?
Cops are mediocre at best, but they're still humans who respond to incentives. So, either we need robot police officers or a pay scale that lends incentive to performing more essential police tasks in our community.
Or eliminating pointless laws
like "OMG, the person is drinking OUTSIDE the establishment." And pointless procedures where a business is punished for the actions of an adult individual.
That requires changing laws
I'm more confident that a cop or a detective will do actual work than a member of the General Court. That's how awful I think they are. I trust a (expletive) police officer over a state rep.
How about we teach these cops
and detectives to use some common sense when enforcing andiquated laws like this one. Lesson # 1 is not to behave like Barney Fife when encountering trivial violations of trivial laws. Lesson # 2 is to hold the individual violating the law responsible for their actions, and not the business owner who had nothing to do with the violation.
And most of them got into Northeastern....
Which makes them just below mediocre based on that alone no?
NO, no pay by the task....
I think it's actually illegal to pay police per task, and I'll assure you we don't want to operate that way.
The problem is that police have a lot of discretion, and the unintended consequences can get ugly.
In Amherst years ago, the town (rather reasonably, I think) passed a law that fines for loud parties would go to pay police overtime. I think a court threw out the law, saying it incentivzed the police to cite every single person uttering a decibel, in order to feather their own nests. (I.e., earn more OT).
Maybe there is a way to get there, but we don't want a police state, and that type of incentive could encourage that environment.
6 points!
We're not asking the important questions here. Had she completed the action of the catch and gone to the ground with possession of the (alleged) beer? Or had she been in possession of the beer, and had the nose of the bottle cross the plane of the drinking zone? If so, then it's a clear liquor law violation.
But seriously
The woman and the bar apologized to their victims.
They should get a reduced sentence.