I was one of the coordinators of the Tavern Squad for the department. This assignment dealt with enforcing the city ordinances and state regulations that the taverns had to follow.

In this assignment the officers wore plain clothes to blend in with the rest of the tavern crowd. The assignment was run every other weekend and sometimes on week days. The team consisted of myself, the other coordinator and several other officers that were picked to be a part of the team. We would use a two man team that went into taverns at random. This team would "try" (seems like one could always tell a cop...lol) and blend in with the other patrons. We would check for minors loitering, underage drinkers and make sure that the tavern had a licensed bartender on duty. We would also make sure that the tavern license was posted and up to date. If we found any of these violations, citations were issued to the offending party and sometimes the owner of the tavern would receive a citation as well. 

Everyone that worked this assignment loved it. It was a change of pace from working the streets and quite fun to act as a bar patron. Some of the reactions we received when we confronted a suspected underage patron were priceless. "No way............leave me alone, your not a cop". It wasn't until we showed our badges that we saw their smiles turn into frowns, and the realization that they had just been busted by the POLICE! 

One call changed my career and life forever. Continue on to learn about the call that changed it all.