$25,000 Grant Helps Combat Alcohol-Related Crime

CATHEDRAL CITY — The Cathedral City Police Department has been awarded a $25,000 grant from the California Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) to battle alcohol-related crime, Acting Cathedral City Police Chief Anthony Yoakum announced.

“This is important to the city in order to increase protection for youth and to shut down problem locations that have contributed to an increase in crime,” Yoakum said in a prepared statement.

The financial boost comes at a time when the Cathedral City Police Department has been bolstering its efforts to reduce alcohol sales to minors. On at least two occasions earlier this year, the Department’s Special Operation Section along with agents of the California Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) arrested suspects for furnishing alcoholic beverages to minors. On one occasion in March, they arrested two suspects; on another occasion in February they arrested one suspect.

The grant is one of many awarded in California to local law enforcement agencies through ABC’s Alcohol Policing Partnership Program.

The grants strengthen local law enforcement efforts by combining the efforts of local police officers and ABC agents. ABC agents have expertise in alcoholic beverage laws and can help communities reduce alcohol-related problems.

“The program improves the quality of life in neighborhoods,” ABC Director Jacob Appelsmith said in a prepared statement. “We’ve seen a real difference in the communities where the grant program resources have been invested.”

The Alcohol Policing Partnership Program was created in 1995 to strengthen partnerships between ABC and local law enforcement agencies. The program is designed to put bad operators out of business, keep alcohol away from minors and bring penalties such as fines, suspensions or revocations against businesses that violate the law.

The grant money will be used to reduce the number of alcoholic beverage sales to minors, obviously intoxicated patrons, illegal solicitations of alcohol, and other criminal activities such as the sale and possession of illegal drugs.

The Alcohol Policing Partnership Program has distributed more than $20 million to local law enforcement to combat alcohol-related crime.

ABC is a Department of the Business, Consumer Services and Housing Agency.