Kegs to get IDs in Iowa

Posted: 03.26.2007 at 6:02 PM

Measure aimed at tracking source of underage drinking

/ Courtesy of AP GraphicsBank

LEE COUNTY, IA -- It might soon become a little more time-consuming to buy a keg of beer in Iowa.

The state is in the process of passing a bill that would require you to register when buying a keg.

The House passed the bill last week and the Senate just approved the measure late this afternoon. It now heads to the governor.

The Keg Registration Bill would require identification numbers for all kegs sold in Iowa.

Those numbers could be used to track down whoever bought the alcohol.

Lee County Sheriff Buck Jones favors the bill, which he says would help curb underage drinking.

"These teen parties we break up, we're finding keg beer and there's no way of tracing that," Sheriff Buck Jones said.

What would that do for your officers?

"We'd be able to charge whoever purchased it and provided alcohol to minors," Sheriff Buck Jones said.

Some critics of the bill say this isn't enough to stop underage drinking.

"I don't think it's going to stop underage drinking," Sheriff Buck Jones said. "But I think it will slow down theparties that there are now."

Right now, 27 counties in Iowa have local keg registration ordinances.

If Governor Chet Culver approves the keg registration measure, it would put a uniform keg registration requirement into place statewide.

The City of Quincy has had a keg registration requirement for about 13 years.

Permit stickers are required those who buy a keg within the city limits.

We talked with Adams County Sheriff Brent Fischer about that requirement.

He said when it comes to finding underage drinkers, one of the most important things officers want to know is where they got the alcohol. And the keg registration leaves no question in officers' minds.

We asked him if he had any advice for other communities thinking about passing similar laws.

"I think the most important thing to understand in our business is you really hate to wait for a tragedy to happen before you make a decision on what can you do to improve it,'' said Fischer. "We always want to promote any kind of proactive approach to it."

We also spoke with former Quincy Mayor Chuck Scholz, who told us the keg permit requirement was one of his first projects when he took office in 1993.

He says the county used to have a difficult time tracking who and where the kegs came from after finding empty ones in the middle of nowhere.

He says many times, teenagers would find a place in rural parts of the county to party. Buthe says the permit requirement helped curb many of those problems.