bar owners unite to curtail excessive drinking

According to the Portsmouth Police Department, one person dies every 33 minutes in alcohol-related crashes around the United States. The statistic is especially alarming in light of the inordinately high number of DUI arrests that occurred in Portsmouth over the weekend of July 6. Sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols resulted in a total of 24 arrests that weekend, most of them for driving under the influence of alcohol.

The arrests illustrate a problem that plagues the Port City on warm summer weekends, as tourists and locals head out to carouse at the bars, often staying out until the early morning hours. Even people who do not get behind the wheel of a vehicle can still cause serious disturbances if they have too much to drink, and liability for their drunken behavior extends to the establishments that serve them alcoholic beverages.

Determining when a bar or restaurant is culpable for the actions of a disorderly customer is a thorny issue, and many business owners feel they are held responsible for behavior that is beyond their control. “We’re there to serve people, but we’re not there to baby-sit them,” said Bethany Hayes, owner of Tj’s at the intersection of Penhallow and Daniel streets. “There has to be a level of personal responsibility.”

Hayes is heading up a new association of businesses that are licensed to serve alcohol in Portsmouth. She hopes that better communication between bar owners, local police and the N.H. Liquor Commission will help Portsmouth businesses turn a profit without jeopardizing public safety. “In terms of working with the Police Department and the Liquor Commission, I feel that there’s been a real lack of communication,” Hayes said. “I’m aiming to open up communication and do some brainstorming.”

About 50 business owners and employees met with police and city officials on July 9 to discuss their concerns, share experiences and suggest solutions. One of the main areas of concern is the lack of public transportation or taxi services available to bar-goers on busy weekend nights. Many patrons call for a taxi at the end of a night of drinking only to be told they will have to wait an hour and a half before a cab is available. “That makes it very difficult for some people to do the right thing, so to speak,” said Portsmouth Police Sgt. Corey MacDonald, the department’s prosecutor.

While the city would love to see more private taxi companies offer services in Portsmouth, demand is not sufficient to attract new taxi businesses, MacDonald said. And while the University of New Hampshire provides a “Safe Rides” program in Durham and surrounding towns, Portsmouth does not have the resources to offer a free municipal service of that nature. “It doesn’t really fall under our jurisdiction to do that,” MacDonald said, noting that a shuttle service would require funding from tax dollars.

The new business association plans to brainstorm ways of tackling the problem on its own. Ideas include starting a private shuttling service, with insurance costs divided between a number of participating businesses, or lobbying the state to start a program in which convicted DUI offenders drive people home as part of their punishments. “That’s definitely going to be one of the leading issues that we’re going to be working on,” Hayes said.

But many bar owners believe the city’s emphasis on preventing people from driving drunk has generated some misconceptions in the minds of bar-goers, who often feel that they are entitled to get plastered as long as they have a designated driver or other arrangements to get home. “The flip side of the message is, if you’re not gonna drive, drink all you want,” said Paul Sorli, owner of the Gas Light Co. on Market Street. If an intoxicated patron gets in a fight or causes a scene on the street, the last bar to serve him can be held accountable.

The Liquor Commission recently targeted the Gas Light after a man arrested for driving under the influence told police he had been drinking at the establishment. Sorli planned to appear before the Commission on July 17 to clear the restaurant’s name. He noted that many patrons engage in “pre-gaming”—drinking heavily in the parking lot before they enter an establishment. Such patrons can appear sober when they first order a drink, but fall to pieces 30 minutes later when the pre-gaming beverages kick in. “Where does the responsibility lie on the individual, and what are the people in enforcement doing to help us get the job done in terms of making sure that people are not over-served?” Sorli asked rhetorically. If the Commission does not reverse its decision, the Gas Light could face a $500 fine and a three-day suspension of its liquor license.

Deputy Portsmouth Police Chief Len DiSesa said officers regularly patrol downtown bars. “Our officers do bar checks with regularity. You can check the records on that,” he told the Portsmouth Police Commission during a meeting at City Hall on July 12. DiSesa said the Police Department and the state Liquor Commission would work with the new business association to address ongoing issues.

Karen Logan, owner of Blue Mermaid Island Grill, said a number of factors make it difficult for employees to monitor alcohol consumption among patrons. Energy drinks like Red Bull, which are often mixed with liquor in cocktails, increase motor skills and make people seem alert even when they have consumed large quantities of alcohol, she said. “It gets harder and harder to tell. First of all, you have no idea where people came from or what they consumed before they came into your establishment,” Logan said. “There’s many factors. We have no control over what someone does before they come into our establishment.”

MacDonald, who specializes in enforcement of alcohol and drug abuse, acknowledged that stimulants like caffeine and ginseng can mask some of the tell-tale symptoms of intoxication, such as slurred speech. But he said it is incumbent upon businesses that serve alcohol to adapt to new trends and recognize that a patron can be energetic and still be intoxicated.  “A lot of it comes down to training. They have to stay up on the current trends,” he said.

Being called to deal with a regular patron of a certain establishment on numerous occasions is a regular source of frustration for police, MacDonald said. He recommends that bar owners use “barment letters,” which he described as trespass notices alerting troublesome patrons that they are not allowed to enter a specific bar for a certain period of time. One copy of the letter is given to the patron and another is given to the police department. According to MacDonald, bars can issue barment letters to any patron without giving a reason.

As a former patrol officer, MacDonald understands the challenges faced by bartenders and other employees, who must make quick decisions about patrons based on brief interactions in dimly lit and noisy establishments. “It may be difficult for a bar owner to recognize one of their clients as being at a low level of impairment,” he said. But if a client is highly impaired and stumbling around the streets, it is clear that he should have been cut off. “In New Hampshire, you can’t serve a person to the point of intoxication,” MacDonald said.

When police arrest the patron of a bar on an alcohol-related offense, they give notice to the business and to the state Liquor Commission. The Liquor Commission then determines an appropriate penalty, whether it is to fine the establishment, suspend its liquor license or shut it down completely.

Hayes said MacDonald has been very helpful and understanding in dealing with downtown businesses, but she added that many bar owners feel they have been unfairly targeted by police. Bars often look out for one another to help avoid mishaps. If a rowdy patron is cut off at Tj’s, for example, the bartender will initiate what Hayes called an “asshole alert,” phoning surrounding bars to warn them that an intoxicated customer could be on the way.

Logan believes most citizens are responsible about their drinking, but there are always a handful of people who go too far. “There is becoming more of a division between those who are going out to get annihilated and those who are out to just have a good time and monitor their intake,” she said.

Logan feels Portsmouth police are proactive to curb excessive drinking and drunk driving, but she encourages people to be independently responsible about their drinking, regardless of law enforcement; the city and state could devote more resources to educational initiatives, she said. “I think that our city does a very good job, especially in the height of the tourist season,” Logan said. “We could concentrate a little more effort on reaching out to the public and educating the public, helping educate in general that it’s a personal responsibility.”

MacDonald said enhanced public education is one of the Police Department’s goals. In addition to conducting more sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols—most of them funded by federal grant money—the department intends to put posters in bars and use radio announcements to remind residents of the penalties associated with driving drunk. Portsmouth has more than 90 bars and restaurants licensed to sell alcohol, and the unprecedented number of arrests in early July has police very worried. “We didn’t really expect this. It took us by surprise,” MacDonald said. “We didn’t expect to get that many impaired people.”

DiSesa agreed that the number of arrests was disconcerting. “The numbers were significantly up from last year, much to our chagrin,” he told the Police Commission on July 12. DiSesa called the sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols a success and promised more to come. “We will be doing several more before the summer ends. We’re lining them up right now,” he said.

According to an offense report released by the Portsmouth Police Department, officers made 109 arrests for driving under the influence between January and May 2007, which reflects a 43 percent increase over the same time period in 2006. Arrests for drunkenness went up by 3 percent, while arrests for disorderly conduct more than doubled. Liquor law violations increased by 36 percent.

Hayes plans to hold meetings of the new business association on a monthly basis, with the first likely occurring at City Hall on Monday, Aug. 6 at 7 p.m. She will distribute notices as the date approaches, inviting all licensed businesses to attend. Sorli noted that the Downtown Business Association, which meets on the third floor of the Gas Light, also offers channels of communication between business owners. The DBA is working on posting a Web site.