Casper Council Discusses Liquor Violations and False Alarms

At the Casper city council meeting on Tuesday, Casper Police Chief Keith McPheeters spoke about the restaurants they found that violated liquor laws.

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While the pandemic is still impacting normal business, McPheeters said that would skew the data somewhat, they announced that 15 businesses failed a sting operation that attempted to see if a business would serve a minor, an increase from 12 in the previous year.

Of note, McPheeters said that there was an increase in alcohol-related car crashes, up to 72 in 2021 from 64 in 2020.

Overall the city saw a 28% decrease in minor possession of alcohol, down to 675 from 719, a 16% decrease in public intoxication, from 348 to 291, and a 10% decrease in alcohol-related incidents, from 1399 to 1262.

There were also a few establishments that McPheeters said saw a sharp decrease in the number of calls made, including the Gaslight Social, which had a 74% decrease in calls, down to 16 from 63 in 2020, and the Second Street Liquor and Wine had an 84% decrease in the numbers calls police received.

McPheeters said that there is also an issue of false alarms that police have to respond to, even if they are repeat offenders, costing the police department time and money, and hoped the council would look into it.

The council agreed to discuss the issue at a future work session and discuss what to do about those that have repeated false alarms.

McPheeters said that in other places that have attempted to address false alarms, there is a grading scale, where the 50th false alarm will fine someone more than the second or third as they attempt to recoup the lost revenue that's caused by police responding to false alarms.