27 Arrested on Suspicion of Soliciting Prostitution : Law enforcement: Police also cite two bars and two liquor stores for allegedly selling liquor to an 18-year-old decoy.

Police arrested 27 people on suspicion of soliciting prostitution during a sweep of areas along Beach Boulevard and West Lincoln Avenue, officials said Monday.

At the same time, Anaheim police and the county’s Alcoholic Beverage Control renewed their Decoy Program aimed at bars and liquor stores suspected of selling liquor to minors, vice Sgt. Michael Patterson said.

Using an 18-year-old man who went around the same Beach Boulevard and West Lincoln Avenue areas, officers cited two liquor stores and two bars that allegedly sold him alcohol, Patterson said.

Both operations, which were carried out Friday night and early Saturday, “were very successful,” Patterson said.

The Decoy Program was discontinued in 1993 after a Court of Appeal in San Francisco ruled that the use of teen-agers by police to catch businesses selling to minors was unconstitutional.

But three weeks ago, the California Supreme Court held that police could use teen-age decoys

Patterson said the four businesses face fines or suspensions or both, depending on their prior records.

The prostitution arrests involved 20 men suspected of soliciting prostitutes and seven women suspected of prostitution.

Four more people were arrested during the sweep, two of whom are suspected of conducting narcotics sales and two others in connection with lewd conduct in public, police said.