Grant finances underage drinking enforcement BY JAMIE ROMM Staff Writer MIDDLETOWN - Teenagers, beware. The Middletown Police Department has just received an $8,000 grant from the state to enforce underage drinking laws. The Cops in Shops program has been cracking down on the purchase and consumption of alcoholic beverages by people under the age of 21, and recently resulted in the arrest of 12 people. Police have conducted six undercover operations at various cooperating liquor stores throughout the township in the last four months. Of the 12 arrests, five were people who were 21 or over and seven were underage. The charges ranged from possession of alcoholic beverages in a public place by a person under the legal age to do so, to offering an alcoholic beverage to an underage person. "We basically have two officers in plain clothes monitoring the stores with one inside and one outside," Sgt. Darren Schwedes said. "We are looking for people with fake IDs or who are buying liquor for underage people." An arrest can lead to a $500 fine as well as a loss of driving privileges for six months. Both the person buying the liquor and the minor would both lose their licenses. The Cops in Shops program has been around since 1997, and the state funds the investigations ever year. The program runs in quarterly cycles, and each time it has people have continued to get arrested. "Some of these people are just making the exchange of liquor for money to minors right outside the store," Schwedes said. "It's sometimes that easy to catch these people." Schwedes is the grant coordinator for the township and works with the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention to curb underage drinking and the purchase of alcohol. "It's a great program," Schwedes said. "Obviously, we've seen some good results."