Kacy Wothe, Eagle Lake
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Recently, a police program with the purpose to target the over-serving of alcohol — in which any person pulled over in an alcohol related stop who is twice over the legal limit will be asked at which bars they were served — has been introduced.
To preface this, I must say as a bartender for five-plus years I do not condone over-serving or drinking and driving in any manner. And while I admire police efforts to curve this problem, I think by targeting bartenders and servers, Mankato police are way off point.
No matter how much training one undergoes as a server of alcohol, not only is it at times nearly impossible to estimate a complete stranger’s blood-alcohol content, but also while one person who is twice over the legal limit may not be able to stand, another may behave perfectly normally.
Furthermore, drinking habits of downtown patrons often include downing shots of alcohol in one’s home before heading downtown. I worry that if I were to serve this person one drink when they first get downtown (before their previous shots have had time to enter their bloodstream) during a later arrest, I could possibly be held accountable for over-serving him or her.
Personally, I do not think the problem is over-serving but instead, over-consuming. The police should be targeting consumer education instead of targeting bartenders who are doing their best with the knowledge and training the city has already provided them.
I understand serving alcohol comes with extreme responsibility, but so does drinking it. I ask the police not to forget this in their efforts.
