ALDERMAN SEEKS ACTION AGAINST CHRONIC DRUNKS

Downtown liquor stores could cut them off, if city can find a way

Chronic alcoholics would be given the bum's rush at Downtown liquor
stores if the head of Madison's Alcohol License Review Committee gets
his way. Ald. Tim Bruer, 14th District, said Wednesday that he wants
to figure out a way for liquor stores to deny service to known chronic
alcoholics. He said he plans to organize a meeting between store
owners and the city's Equal Opportunities Commission to figure out how
to stop sales to chronic alcoholics especially those with a history of
violence or crime without running afoul of discrimination laws.

Bruer said such a policy would be consistent with Madison's drive to
reduce alcohol-related crimes and nuisances, primarily on State
Street. Liquor store owners seem willing to go along with the idea, he
said, so long as they wouldn't be slapped with costly discrimination
complaints as a result.

Central District police Capt. George Silverwood said chronic
alcoholics occupy a significant amount of officers' times. Police took
people to the county's detox center about 10,000 times in a five-year
period, he said, at a cost of $1.5 million. About 80 percent of those
calls were from Downtown.

Silverwood said people are taken to detox when they're deemed unable
to care for themselves. A hard core of a few dozen alcoholics create
most of the problems, he said, noting that 32 people were taken to
detox 1,290 times over that five-year period.

The Fire Department also sometimes responds in case someone is
injured, which adds to the cost, he said.

Chronic alcoholics sometimes cause crime, typically aggressive
panhandling, shoplifting, disorderly conduct or theft, Silverwood said.

Rick Streed, manager of Badger Liquor at 402 State St., said he would
welcome guidance from the city. It's easy to deny service to someone
who's already intoxicated that's required under state law, Streed said.

But to say, ''We can't serve you because we know you're going to get
drunk and create problems,'' Streed said, ''is extending the law
beyond anything we ever understood it to mean.

''My problem is they want us to arbitrarily cut people off,'' he
added. ''To me, that opens up a weird door; we randomly decide who has
a drinking problem.''

Vicki Washington, president of the EOC, expressed similar concerns.
She said Bruer's proposal was a surprise and sounded ''very troubling,
at a minimum.''

''It would seem to put the tavern owners and liquor store owners in
the position of making judgments, in a very speculative way, whether
someone is going to be a chronic drunk on that night,'' Washington
said. ''In some ways, that's a medical assessment.''

State Journal reporter Scott Milfred contributed to this story.

Checked-by: "Don Beck"