[autarch]

> Then the delivery guy who was probably only a couple years older than us just asked to see his actual underage ID to prove he wasn't a cop and handed us the beer anyway.

The liquor enforcement folks (usually not cops, AFAIK) could easily hire someone under 21 to attempt to purchase alcohol. In fact, I'm pretty sure that in some places they do exactly this.

[Enginerrrd]

They do get underage folks to try to do either "shoulder tap" operations or direct purchases from vendors. I was asked to do this once as a teenager. I refused, but not before asking a lot of questions about what I'd be doing. I can't say much about the shoulder tap operations, however, I believe there's still a couple of tells for the direct purchase attempts based on the conversations I had:

1. To ensure safety, there will be an adult (undercover cop) nearby. (This could be around the corner, or someplace sneaky, but usually they just pose as another customer.) They probably will maintain pretty close proximity to their underage undercover though.

2. They probably won't give you a fake ID, because it makes it harder to get any sort of definitive enforcement to stick. They aren't trying to catch people that are easily tricked by fake ID's so much as they are trying to catch people that are either knowingly selling booze to underage people or not making any attempt to verify.

So if someone presents a fake ID, even one that's sorta but not totally obvious, that's unlikely to be a sting operation.

3. I believe they typically will actually present ID when asked. Again this helps get charges to stick.

[cbsks]

A news article about shoulder tap operations performed by my local police department said:

Police spokesperson Sgt. Riley Harwood said that during such sting operations, the underage decoys are not made to look older with different clothes or make-up, and they’re not taught any strategies of deception. “There are no tricks,” he said, explaining if a decoy is asked for a driver’s license or ID, they hand over a valid card that shows they’re under 21 years old. “There’s no math that needs to be done,” Harwood said of the obvious differences between underage and over-21 IDs. “People just need to do their jobs.”

[rurp]

I worked as a cashier at a place that sold liquor and we would occasionally get decoys. It was usually the same young guy who would try to purchase a single beer, without saying a word.

If the cashier asked for his i.d., the guy would silently hand them card that said something like, "Congratulations, you did not fail the underage liquor sales test", and then leave.

After the 4th or 5th time of the same person trying the same purchase most of the employees learned who he was. I think law enforcement did eventually switch to a different decoy towards the end of my time at the job.

[SolarNet]

They do actually do this. County sherrif mass emails the county employees if they have any teenage children who wanna ride in a police car for a week once a year as the pitch.

[ALittleLight]

Yeah, that seems like ensuring you get convicted if the guy was a cop. At least without checking his underage id you could claim you believed him.

[throwaway0a5e]

They just want to fine the business. Arresting delivery drivers for not giving a crap about underage drinking is how you create libertarians and that's the last thing the local police department wants.

[eru]

Not sure about that. Law enforcement officers are an interesting bunch with a diverse set of views.