EKB News

Kentucky State Police Commissioner Rodney Brewer announced today the agency awarded $350,000 in federal grant funds to enforce underage drinking laws that prohibit the sale, purchase and consumption of alcoholic beverages by minors.
Funding is provided by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), Enforcement of Underage Drinking Laws (EUDL) block grant. KSP serves as the designated state administrator for EUDL grant funds and monitors each project. As part of this initiative, each state, territory, and the District of Columbia receive $350,000 in the form of block grants. KSP has been administering the annual EUDL block grant funding since 2004.
"Our agency is fortunate to be responsible for distributing this federal grant money. EUDL funds allow communities to work together to identify local needs and sustain a successful strategy to combat underage drinking. Our goal is to make minors and their parents more aware of underage drinking laws and the dangerous consequences of underage drinking," said Brewer.
The awards support a wide range of activities including a strong emphasis on compliance checks of retail alcohol outlets to reduce sales to minors, crackdowns on false identification, programs to reduce older youth or adults from providing alcohol to minors, "party patrols" to prevent access to alcohol at large youth gatherings, "cops in shops" to deter minors' attempts to purchase alcohol and alcohol awareness programs targeted at schools and colleges.
"We believe that strong community involvement increases the odds of reaching our community goal. Education is essential to this effort as well as enforcement of the law," added Brewer.
Kentucky EUDL programs have received national exposure for their efforts including the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and the Bluegrass Regional Prevention Center. Ky ABC received the "Law Enforcement Partner of the Year" award for their 91 percent retail compliance rate by the Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center (UDETC) last month at an awards ceremony in Nashville, TN. The Bluegrass Regional Prevention Center presented their EUDL program ‘Keep It Real’, an interactive video media project, to attendees at the National EUDL Conference. The ‘Keep It Real’ project challenges teens to create a thirty-second public service announcement that depicts the prevention of underage drinking. The videos are then uploaded to a website where students across the state can vote on their favorite video.
KSP will accept applications for the 2009 EUDL block grant beginning December 1, 2008. The grant application package will be posted on the agencies’ website at www.kentuckystatepolice.org <http://www.kentuckystatepolice.org/> on that date.
2008 EUDL Grant Recipients and Funded Projects
* Kentucky Department of Alcohol Beverage Control ($130,000), Zero
Tolerance EUDL Project
* Kentucky Department of Alcohol Beverage Control Education Branch
($20,000), S.T.A.R. (Server Training in Alcohol Regulations) Project
* Morehead State University ($20,300), College Campus Prevention
of Underage Drinking (Kentucky Network).
* Louisville Metro Police Department ($25,000), LMPD Underage
Drinking Prevention Program
* Henderson County Police Department ($14,500), Henderson Underage
Drinking Enforcement Program
* Radcliff Police Department ($12,500), Under 21 Enforcement
Program
* Paducah Police Department ($15,700), Enforcing Underage Drinking
Laws Project
* MADD - Mothers Against Drunk Driving, ($55,000), Youth In Action
Project
* Seven Counties Services Prevention Center ($40,000), Keep It
Real program
* Kentucky EUDL Program ($17,000), Special Programs and Planning