Project: Franklin County S.T.O.P. Program

Project Period: April 1, 2001 - December 31, 2003

Implementing Agency: Justice Programs Unit

Sub grantees: Franklin County Commissioners

Project Directors: Lt. Michael Spirit, Franklin County Sheriff's Office and Detective Corey Johnson, Bexley P.D.

Project Description: The Franklin County Stop Teenage Opportunity to Purchase Program is a county wide law enforcement collaborative project, utilizing twenty-six (26) agencies, which has reduced the opportunity for juveniles to purchase alcohol. The project utilizes an underage operative in conjunction with six S.T.O.P. program officers to perform compliance checks on businesses that sell alcohol to include carry-outs, drive-thru's, and bar/night club premises.

The program has been directly responsible for the significant reduction of underage alcohol sales in Franklin County. From April 2001 to January 2002 Franklin County businesses sold alcohol to the underage informant 41% of the time. During the same period in 2002-2003 Franklin County businesses sold alcohol to the underage informant 18% of the time.

The S.T.O.P. program was selected and presented at the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws National Leadership Conference, held in Dallas, Texas in September 2002.

The program was described by Deputy Director of the Ohio Department of Public Safety Ed Duvall Jr., in the following: "This concept has proven to be the most highly effective program combating underage drinking in the state." . "I highly encourage this program to take hold in all 88 counties of Ohio." . "Combining law enforcement's resources to target underage drinking has been an innovative and highly effective method of prosecuting offenders who place alcohol in the hands of teens."

The success of the S.T.O.P. Program has lead to the programs' implementation in Fairfield and Licking Counties.

The success of the project has come not only from a strong enforcement component, but from a concerted effort to keep the issue in the local media in an effort to educate parents, retailers and the community at large as to the problem of underage opportunities to purchase.