RAJA THIRU/Arizona Daily Wildcat Nathan Burdick, a general manager at Trident Grill, pours drinks late yesterday afternoon. The bar has been raided twice in the past year by undercover Tucson police officers.

Some Tucson bar owners are beginning to voice their opinions about increased police enforcement in their bars - and things may soon get a bit louder.

Luke Cusack, owner of The Keys, is on the cusp of bringing "extremely severe legal actions" against the City of Tucson. He thinks that large-scale police raids on bars and restaurants are affecting business owners and creating a state of prohibition in Tucson.

"I want to see every citizen be able to enjoy the rights that have been granted to them without harassment or prejudice," he said. "That's the battle I'm fighting, and I'm going to take it to the end of the planet. I'm not going to be deterred."

Cusack cited the enforcement of over-serving of alcohol as one of the keys to the problem.

If police find that a bar owner has knowingly served an intoxicated patron, they can levy a $1,500 fine on the bar owner.

Police use a variety of determining factors before deciding that a person has been over-served, said Capt. John Leavitt, of the Tucson Police Department midtown division. Police will interview other patrons, bartenders and servers to make this determination.

Cusack said in his experience, police take a much simpler approach.

"They should not be coming into a bar and pulling people out because their eyes are red and watery and cite the bartender and bar owner," he said. "If people are acting responsibly and not driving drunk, then leave them the hell alone."

Despite his issues with police techniques, Cusack said he understands that they are receiving their orders from certain members of the city council.

"I am generally very supportive and very sympathetic to police officers and the Tucson Police Department," he said. "I welcome officers in uniform walking through my establishment and saying 'hi' to my customers and my employees."

Democratic Councilwoman Carol West said that TPD does receive its orders from the city council although the specific enforcement tactics are left to the discretion of the department.

West said she has not heard complaints from bar owners or customers. But if she witnessed these large-scale operations, she wouldn't mind.

"If I were in there, I'd say 'good for them,'" she said. "I feel so strongly about this. (Complaining bar owners) better not call me because I wouldn't be the least bit sympathetic."

Nathan Burdick, a general manager from the Trident Grill, said the police efforts have been excessive to say the least.

"It's bad for business," he said. "When it comes down to it, if there is a problem, you don't need to send in an entire fleet of cops to do the job of a couple."

Police went into Trident on Oct. 24 as part of "Operation Last Call." More than 20 officers surrounded the bar and arrested one underage drinker who had a fake driver's license.

"With all those cops in the parking lot, imagine what it looks like to people driving down the street," Burdick said. "People are going to make their own judgments. They don't know that all of that was to catch one underage drinker."

West defends the council's decision to go after liquor violators. She thinks that there are larger issues such as drinking and driving and sexual assault that often start with intoxicated individuals.

She also said the city council should not be held accountable for police techniques.

"The problem is that we have binge drinking and young people who don't stop with just wondering," she said. "We expect law and order. We expect public safety to be established. But then how they do that is up to them."

While she said she does not agree with Cusack's claim of a prohibition-style approach to the bar community, she said she is concerned that the number of bars in Tucson is growing.

"I think that we have an awful lot of (bars) in this town and I sometimes wonder about that," she said.

Cusack is worried that business owners that follow the rules are being lumped into the same category with irresponsible bar owners.

"They do the quarter drinks, the drink and drown nights and the cheap promotions," he said. "This hurts our entire community and hurts our entire industry."

Leavitt said he understands the frustrations of bar owners, but the department is working more to cut underage drinking, than trying to find intoxicated patrons who have been over-served.

"There are two or three hundred bars in town that fully support what we're doing. I understand why they are upset because we are affecting the way they do business. Over-serving citations are a very rare one for us."