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Fake IDs plague local bars

Arizona Summer Wildcat

Major penalties await minors who are caught with 'fakes' as

For some UA students, a fake ID is one of the many important investments that go into the college experience, regardless of the potential legal ramifications.

"My freshman year, everybody had fake IDs when I came here," said Jennifer Hughes, a psychology junior. "Someone told me to invest in a really good ID, and it lasted two years."

Hughes, whose ID was eventually taken at Frog & Firkin, 874 E. University Blvd., said finding an ID was easy - and using it was even easier.

"I bought it from a friend of a friend in Tucson my freshman year," she said. "I thought it was a good investment. They looked twice at Osco (Drugstore) for alcohol, but never at the bars."

Some local establishments encounter illegal IDs on a nightly basis. Tony Pinkins, a manager at O'Malley's on Fourth, 247 N. Fourth Ave., said this is a product of a campus environment that caters to drinking.

"It's peer pressure, man. They're young, and they want to get in with the older crowd," he said. "It's kind of sad. It bugs me that the U of A, and even the Wildcat, allows for so much advertising for alcohol."

A graduate of the University of Arizona with a psychology degree, Pinkins said underage students receive mixed messages on campus and are often enticed into an environment that they are legally too young to partake in.

"They're young and they want to get with the older crowd. They can't wait to be 21, and don't want to serve their time," he said. "Even if you go into classrooms and look on the bulletin boards, there are more fliers up for two-for-one specials here than there is for GRE and MCAT (classes)."

Undeclared sophomore Pat Sargeant, who had a fake ID before he came to the UA, said the student community is so focused around alcohol that underage students are left out.

"The majority of my friends have fakes. There's nothing happening (in Tucson) without the bar scene," he said. "We used to have a fraternity system, but the school's gotten rid of that. The only place for a person to go is to a house party or the bars - and it's much easier to go to the bars."

Hughes agreed and added that because drinking and college life have a symbiotic relationship, underage students will utilize every method possible to enjoy the experience at a younger age.

"I'm a 19-year-old junior, so there is no way that I won't be drinking until my senior year," she said. "I think it is part of the college life. It's frustrating that the bars do not have 18 and over nights."

Where underage students go to drink

Sargeant and Hughes admitted that certain bars are easier than others when trying to enter with an illegal ID.

"There are a lot of bars in Tucson that are real lax on IDs," Sargeant said. "The Rock used to be ridiculously easy to get into. My freshman year, the Rock was the place for freshmen with horrible IDs to go."

Sargeant, whose ID was confiscated at Maloney's on Fourth, 213 N. Fourth Ave., said there are some bars that are still easy to get into.

"(Gentle) Ben's is easy (to get into)," he added. "Anyone can get in there."

Ian Broome, a manager from Gentle Ben's, said that fake ID's always pose a problem for the bar, especially given its close proximity to large residence halls.

"We see tons of them and turn them away whenever we see them," he said.

Broome denied that Gentle Ben's knowingly allows underage patrons to enter the bar with fake IDs.

"People will slip through the cracks, but we do our best to get them out," he said. "We are aware that people slip through the cracks, but obviously, the better trained these (doormen) are, the more we cover our tails by having people sign-in, and question them at the door about their age and address."

Broome added that the Arizona Liquor Board watches the bar, making sure all patrons have identification and are older than 21.

"The liquor board comes down from Phoenix every so often, and they'll grab a couple IDs and that is their legal right to do that," he said. "That is why we try to be as tight as possible."

Hughes also named Gentle Ben's as one of the easier bars to gain access into with a fake ID - with the help of another factor.

"It's easy to get in when you're a girl," she said.

Bars and nightclubs are not the only establishments that must deal with fake IDs. While various convenience stores near campus also see fake IDs, some are actually more prepared to handle the problems than the nearby bars.

"It's pretty rare to see the fake ones because we use the Viage machine that will automatically tell if they are of age or not or if it's a fake ID," said the store manager of the Circle K located at 977 E. Speedway Blvd., who asked to be identified as Troy.

The Viage machine is a yellow device that tells a person's age when a license is scanned through the machine. There is no possible way to alter the age.

Troy added that the majority of illegal IDs that he and his fellow employees see are actually real, but are being used by another person.

"That would be more likely than somebody using a bogus ID," he said.

Different types, same motivation

Broome said there are a number of styles of IDs that Gentle Ben's must decipher as illegal and legal. Although some licenses have watermarks and holograms, people have found ways to falsify the data.

"There's a lot of fake Maine (IDs). There's a lot of bad California (IDs)," he said. "For Arizona (IDs) there's a thing called a tape over, which is a thin, laminant tape that you can put a number on and tape over the top of the license, which makes it a little thicker. It kind of bubbles sometimes and you can tell that it is fake."

Both Gentle Ben's and O'Malley's use similar techniques to scope out fake IDs.

"You look at the height and weight and the eye-color - and there are a few other tricks that I can't tell because then (ID makers) will know," Pinkins said. "We'll ask the person to sign in and match the signatures up. If your signature doesn't match, then we know it's fake."

Broome said Gentle Ben's has other methods of not only sifting out fake IDs, but also some that keep liability off the bar. Not only are some of the head doormen certified by the Arizona Liquor Board, but some of the bartenders are as well.

"We have an ID book at the front door, we have cameras, we have sign-in sheets, we have our guys who are liquor board certified," he said. "They had to go to a six-hour meeting where they show off fake ID's and tell them how to tell if they're fake."

Broome added that the video cameras also provided evidence for those underage people caught in the bar by police.

"If they catch a person with a fake ID, the kid will usually say 'I don't have an ID or I wasn't carded,'" he said. "At that point we grab the video camera and the clip board and match up the face and the signature and prove to the police that we had that person sign in and we have that person on video.

"It's kind of a double protection system because, of course, the kids are going to do anything they can to get in."

Legal Matters

Although Broome and Pinkins said many of the fake IDs they see are from UA students, the use of fake IDs is not necessarily a campus problem.

"I don't know if it's U of A students, but young people in general," said Sgt. Michael Smith, UAPD spokesman. "Obviously, the No. 1 thing that we come across is to either get into places that serve alcohol or to be able to purchase alcohol themselves."

It is understood that people using fake IDs run the risk are being arrested, yet some do not understand the penalties involved.

Possessing a fictitious license violates a number of Arizona Statutes. Merely possessing a fake ID is considered a traffic violation, which carries the penalty of a class two misdemeanor punishable by four months in jail and up to $750 in fines

Obtaining a fictitious license fraudulently by providing false information is also a class two misdemeanor.

If an illegal ID is used to purchase alcohol, the violation is considered a class one misdemeanor, punishable by six months in jail and up to $2,000 in fines.

The charges, however, do not end there. If an underage person is caught purchasing alcohol illegally, he or she will also be charged with a Minor In Possession or Minor in Consumption violation.

Additionally, if an underage person is found guilty of possessing a fake ID, the Department of Motor Vehicles can revoke or suspend that person's driver license for an extended period of time.

Smith added that the fake IDs are now improving in quality, but even the bad ones can still be difficult to spot.

"Some of the fake IDs are actually manufactured on computers. Other ways are trying to switch birth certificates with those that are of-age," he said. "You'll get the ones that are really bad, but given the lighting conditions of certain establishments, they do sometimes work."