Police officials at the D.C. Alcoholic Beverage Commission have unveiled a small, hand-held device that will validate the age and identity of bar, restaurant and club patrons across the city. The Lavinna L100 represents D.C.’s newest deterrent in an effort to reduce underage drinking in bars and nightclubs throughout D.C.
After scanning a license into the Lavinna, the device recalls the patron’s date of birth, age and license expiration date in approximately 20 seconds, according to a recent Washington Post article. An invalid I.D. produces no response from the device, in which case the police officers check the I.D. with a more comprehensive computer system at the precinct.
According to the Post article, the portable device allows police officers to don club attire and mingle among unsuspecting bar and club patrons.
On Jan. 13, four underage drinkers?two of whom were Georgetown students?were arrested at Champions, a bar located at 1206 Wisconsin Ave., according to Lt. Brian Bray of MPD police service area 205. According to The Washington Post, D.C. police arrested 200 youths for underage drinking and roughly 1,000 youths for alcohol-related offenses in the year 2001. MPD began its Stop Underage Drinking initiative last January after receiving pressure from area neighbors to decrease alcohol-related problems.
The introduction of the Lavinna comes approximately a year after MPD began using the Intellicheck machine to combat underage drinking. According to Bray, the introduction of the Lavinna does not reflect the ineffectiveness of the Intellicheck system. Rather, the smaller size of the Lavinna allows police officers to mingle among customers, increasing their ability to spot underage drinkers, he said.
The Intellicheck machine is not portable, which forces bar owners to place the machine at the entrance of their establishments, and the machine only recognizes identification cards from 38 states, Bray said.
