Police powers on drinking rejected

Alcohol and Drug Alliance gives unanimous thumbs down

By: Jeff Milgram
   The Princeton Alcohol and Drug Alliance unanimously voted Thursday to reject a proposed Princeton Borough ordinance that would permit police to enter private property, including the Prospect Avenue clubs, to arrest underage drinkers.
   Concluding significant progress has been made against underage drinking, the alliance will come before the Borough Council on April 22 and recommend that it continue to study the problem and seek alternatives to the ordinance.
   "We do not want the ordinance," said Princeton Township Committeewoman Casey Hegener, the township’s liaison to the alliance. "But we want the discussion to continue."
   The alliance had earlier endorsed a proposal by an eating club representative that included better training for club officers to prevent alcohol intoxication and underage drinking, first aid training, hiring professional security guards to check identification at the club entrances and always offering non-alcoholic beverages in the club tap rooms.
   The university’s Graduate InterClub Council, the governing body of the eating clubs, comprising alumni members who set policies for the clubs, endorsed the proposal Feb. 20.
   The alliance has discussed the problem of underage drinking in the Princeton community and met with a number of representatives of Princeton University, the private eating clubs and other university groups for more than a year.
   The alliance is comprised of volunteers from the community, representatives from local schools, substance abuse treatment centers and members of the two municipal governing bodies.
   The proposed ordinance would permit police officers to enforce underage drinking laws on private property only if invited inside the property or if responding to an emergency.
   One of the eating clubs, Quadrangle, has begun to offer soda and an experiment shows that it is cutting back on beer consumption.
   Quadrangle President Corey Sanders told the alliance that beer consumption was cut in half after soda was made available.
   "We’re working to get soda machines in every dining club," said Timothy Szostek, interclub adviser.
   He said the university will fund alcohol-free parties at the eating clubs.
   Borough Police Detective Kevin Creegan said checks at several clubs showed they are not living up to an agreement to improve security.
   The agreement is part of a deal to drop charges against four club presidents, former presidents and bartenders of Colonial and Quadrangle clubs.
   The Borough Council has mulled for several years a proposed ordinance that would permit police officers to enforce underage drinking laws on private property. The council has withheld formal consideration of the ordinance until advisory groups such as the Princeton Regional Health Commission and the Princeton Alcohol and Drug Alliance make suggestions.