2 Cities Get Grants to Fight Alcohol-Related Crime

Two Orange County cities will receive nearly $200,000 to combat alcohol-related crime.

Anaheim and Santa Ana, which have the highest number of liquor-license holders in the county, will each receive about $100,000 from the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control, officials announced Thursday.

The funding is part of a program called the Grant Assistant to Local Law Enforcement Project, which aims at lowering crime at “problem establishments,” officials said.

“We have various businesses that consistently break the law,” Santa Ana Police Chief Paul M. Walters said.

Some liquor stores near high schools are selling to minors, he said. Others have loiterers who cause problems for neighborhood residents.

Problem establishments make up less than 5% of about 1,000 liquor-license holders in Santa Ana and Anaheim, said Jerry Jolly, the ABC’s deputy division chief. But they tend to draw the criminal element, pulling away police manpower that can be better used in other parts of the city, he said.

“This grant will make us all a little more effective, a little smarter,” Jolly said.

Although programs differ, Walker said, the emphasis is to combine forces from the community, police and Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control to reduce crimes, such as narcotics violations, sales of alcohol to minors and public drunkenness.

Overall, there are 70,000 license holders in California and only 400 state investigators to enforce regulations.

Citing an understaffed investigation team, the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control will distribute $2.4 million among 34 law enforcement agencies around the state to help crack down on violators, Jolly said. The grants, which will be taken out of the Alcoholic Beverage Control’s reserve fund, begins Jan. 1, 1995.