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Alcohol Enforcement Team

LRADAC has formed Multi-Jurisdictional Alcohol Enforcement Teams that now cover four key areas of the Midlands.

The state's first Alcohol Enforcement Team was formed in the spring of 2002 to focus on the area served by School District Five of Lexington and Richland Counties. Since that time, the Lexington County Sheriff's Department, Richland County Sheriff's Department, Town of Irmo Police Department and Town of Chapin Police Department have worked together to cross jurisdictional lines and enforce the state's underage drinking laws.

In August 2003, LRADAC announced a new Alcohol Enforcement Team in the Downtown Columbia area, focusing on Five Points and the Congaree Vista as well as the expansion of the District Five team into Lexington County School District One. In the Downtown area, the Richland County Sheriff's Department is joined by the University of South Carolina Police Department and the Columbia College Police Department. In District One, the District Five team is now joined by the Lexington Police Department.

LRADAC added the fourth Alcohol Enforcement Team in April 2004 in Richland School District Two, in partnership with the Reconnecting Communities and Schools Group and the Richland County Sheriff's Department.

Enforcement efforts employed by all of the teams include compliance checks of locations that sell alcoholic beverages; party patrols; sobriety checkpoints; community policing and other strategies to reduce youth access to alcohol and underage drinking.

LRADAC identifies strategies in enforcing the state's underage drinking laws and offers free merchant education to servers and sellers of alcohol. Through newsletters and training opportunities, LRADAC supplements the work of the enforcement teams by helping merchants ensure that their stores are in compliance so that those stores can be partners in keeping kids safe. If you are a store owner or local merchant who would like to have your employees trained regarding alcohol policies and laws, please call (803) 733-1390 ext. 158.

These projects are funded by Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws grants awarded to the South Carolina Department of Alcohol and Other Drug Abuse Services by the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) of the United States Department of Justice.

How can you get involved?

Call local law enforcement 24 hours a day to report underage drinking parties and alcohol sales to minors. You may call these numbers anonymously 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Lexington County Sheriff's Department: (803) 951-6160 (Alcohol Enforcement Hotline)

Richland County Sheriff's Department: (803) 576-3000

Columbia Police Department: (803) 252-2911

Chapin, Gaston, Irmo, Town of Lexington, Pine Ridge, South Congaree, Springdale and Swansea: (803) 359-2521

SLED (State Law Enforcement Division)