TRACE - Target Responsibility for Alcohol Connected Emergencies
TRACE Public Awareness Campaign: Responsible Adults - Safe Teen Project
A 41-year-old California woman provided alcohol to a group of minors who then drove away from the party in a Ford Expedition. The 18-year-old driver sped away, ran a stop sign and crashed -- killing two of the teenagers and severely injuring the other passengers. The woman who provided the alcohol went to jail.
These deadly incidents occur with devastating frequency in our state. Most Californians know that it is against the law for liquor stores to sell alcohol to anyone under 21 years old, but it is equally unlawful for parents, older brothers or sisters or anyone else to buy alcohol for minors or to serve alcohol to minors. Our laws against selling to or buying alcohol for minors are critical: The most recent California statistics reveal that 137 young people 20 years of age and under who had been drinking and driving were killed in traffic fatalities and 2,215 were injured. (Calif. Highway Patrol, 2004 data.)
Yet, disturbingly, 40 percent of teenagers say it is easy to get alcohol from someone else's parent and 65 percent say it is easy to obtain it from an older sibling or relative, according to a 2005 study by the American Medical Association.
Public Awareness Campaign: Responsible Adults - Safe Teen Project
In the Fall 2005, the Attorney General’s Crime and Violence Prevention Center (CVPC) received a two-year grant from the Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) to develop and implement a public awareness campaign that would encourage parents and other adults to comply with the laws against providing alcohol to minors and to raise the public’s awareness of the TRACE (Target Responsibility for Alcohol Connected Emergencies) program within the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), which traces alcohol obtained by minors back to its source.
In February 2007, Attorney General's CVPC launched the The Responsible Adults - Safe Teens public awareness campaign that includes television/theater and radio spots, direct mail pieces, magazine ads and regional workshops across California. These regions include: Humboldt/Trinity counties; Sacramento/Yolo counties; Fresno/Tulare counties; and the greater Los Angeles/San Diego area.
For more information about our public awareness campaign, contact Wendy Tully at the Attorney General's Crime and Violence Prevention Center by e-mail: Wendy.Tully@doj.ca.gov.
Law Against Providing Alcohol to Minors
According to Business & Professions Code Section 25658:
(a) Except as otherwise provided in subdivision (c), every person who sells, furnishes, gives, or causes to be sold, furnished, or given away, any alcoholic beverage to any person under the age of 21 years is guilty of a misdemeanor.
(b) Any person under the age of 21 years who purchases any alcoholic beverage, or any person under the age of 21 years who consumes any alcoholic beverage in any on-sale premises, is guilty of a misdemeanor.
(c) Any person who violates subdivision (a) by purchasing any alcoholic beverage for, or furnishing, giving, or giving away any alcoholic beverage to, a person under the age of 21 years, and the person under the age of 21 years thereafter consumes the alcohol and thereby proximately causes great bodily injury or death to himself, herself, or any other person, is guilty of a misdemeanor….
Background: TRACE Program
The Attorney General's Public Awareness campaign is a component of the TRACE program. The program began in 2004 due to questions raised after the following case:
Twenty-year-old Casey Goodwin had just pulled her car over to call her mom, Lynne. It was Lynne's birthday and Casey was coming home from college to help her celebrate. After the phone call, Casey got back onto the road and moments later, was struck head-on by a car driven by an intoxicated underage driver. Casey's injuries were devastating; she died the next day.
One of Lynne Goodwin's many questions from this tragedy is "How did the underage driver get the alcohol he had been drinking?"
The Attorney General's Office of Victims' Services (OVS) researched her question and discovered that better collaboration between local law enforcement and the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC) could help in identifying the source of alcohol in fatalities or injuries involving minors.
To help with this collaboration, the Attorney General convened the TRACE task force in 2004. The task force developed and implemented a program in April 2004 for the immediate investigation of collisions, assaults and other incidents where underage alcohol use is suspected.
How It Works
Here is how it works: when local law enforcement is called to a drunk-driving incident involving a minor, they notify ABC who then determines whether the incident meets the criteria for a TRACE investigation. (Criteria include: minor + alcohol + serious injury or crash.)
If the case meets the criteria, the ABC investigators are immediately dispatched to the scene to help determine where and how the alcohol was obtained. Their investigation may result in legal consequences for persons who sold or furnished the alcoholic beverages to the minor and administrative sanctions for liquor establishments involved in the selling or furnishing of the alcohol. Including ABC at the beginning of an incident increases the likelihood for a successful source investigation. Witnesses can be identified, statements taken and evidence seized within minutes and hours after an incident, versus days or weeks later.
Recent Investigation
A recent case in Desert Hot Springs, CA, illustrates the effectiveness of the TRACE program. Two ABC investigators were called to the scene of a drunk-driving incident involving a minor. A 19-year-old intoxicated minor had crashed head-on into another car killing himself and the other driver, who was only 17. The ABC investigators noticed that cold beer was found in the intoxicated teen's car. They went to area liquor establishments to view their video surveillance tapes and discovered that one of the businesses had illegally sold alcohol to the teen. As a result, the clerk who sold the alcohol is being prosecuted criminally and the store's liquor license was suspended for 90 days. To see a re-enactment of the investigation, please go to www.abc.ca.gov/programs/Trace.html.
.How TRACE Can Help Local Law Enforcement
TRACE can be easily used statewide by every law enforcement agency to aid in their investigations. Recently, ABC sent TRACE reference cards with a letter explaining how to make a TRACE investigation to all police chiefs, sheriffs and highway patrol offices across the state. More than 20,000 wallet cards have been printed for officers to use in the field guiding them on how to initiate a TRACE investigation.
To initiate a TRACE investigation in Northern California (all counties north of Fresno County), law enforcement agencies should call 916-919-4445. For Southern California, call 562-239-5949.
