Letter to Sheriffs and Police Chiefs

Date:

July 1, 2026

To:

Sheriffs and Police Chiefs of California

From:

Paul Tupy, Director

Subject:

ABC-OTS Local Law Enforcement Grant

Beginning October 1, 2026, the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control (ABC), sponsored by the Office of Traffic Safety (OTS), through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), anticipates awarding grants up to $30,000 to local law enforcement agencies to utilize the Minor Decoy Program, Shoulder Tap Program, IMPACT Program and Holiday Enforcement. The grant operation period will be October 1, 2026, or upon federal spending authority (whichever is later) through August 31, 2027.

The goal of the Minor Decoy Program is to reduce the number of licensees who sell alcoholic beverages to minors. On April 4, 1994, the California Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision upholding the use of underage decoys by law enforcement officials. As a result, Section 25658(t) of the Business and Professions Code and Rule 141 of the California Code of Regulations were established to provide the legal requirements for law enforcement agencies when conducting a decoy operation.

The Shoulder Tap Program targets adults who furnish alcoholic beverages to minors. “Shoulder Tapping” refers to the practice used by minors to obtain alcohol from adults near off-sale retail outlets. An underage decoy approaches an adult outside an alcohol outlet and requests that the adult purchase alcohol for them.

IMPACT (Informed Merchants Preventing Alcohol-Related Crime Tendencies) inspections focus on licensee education. The officers/deputies look for loitering, litter, graffiti, posted signs, lack of food service in restaurants, illegal weapons, or other violations. A checklist is used to note any violations observed and is provided to the licensee. The licensee is then given an opportunity to fix any problems. Follow-up visits are then conducted to ensure the licensee has corrected them and is in compliance.

Holiday Enforcement is a program that consists of working general undercover and high-profile enforcement targeting underage drinking, sales/furnishing to minors, sales to obviously intoxicated patrons, and other violations. To help reduce youth involved fatal and/or injury crashes, the dates for Holiday Enforcement operations coincide with NHTSA/OTS AVOID Campaign dates, which have been determined as holidays with an influx number of DUI crashes. Holidays are defined as Halloween, Thanksgiving, New Year’s Eve, St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo, Memorial Day weekend and 4^th of July.

All interested agencies should understand the funding of these grants is contingent upon the Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control receiving funds from the Office of Traffic Safey for the 2027 federal fiscal year.

If your agency would like to be considered for this grant, please submit all the following documents:

• A Letter of Interest
• Printout of your City/County Traffic Safety Ranking. This document is from the OTS Crash Rankings website (depicting alcohol involved fatalities, injuries, and had been drinking (HBO) drivers under 21).
From the OTS website home page, click on the “Traffic Safety Data” tab then open “OTS Crash Rankings”
• Budget Estimate Form

Send all the above to:

Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control
Attn: Grant Unit
3927 Lennane Drive, Suite #100
Sacramento, CA 95834

For additional information on the grant process, go to ABC’s Underage Drinking page on the website. Here you will access the handbook.

All letters of interest must be received by 5:00 p.m. on Friday, August 14, 2026. ABC will accept letters of interest via email with an electronic/digital signature.

All agencies selected will be required to have one (1) assigned sworn staff member attend a one-day training session. The training will be held in Sacramento on October 8, 2026 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. Fiscal officers will be contacted by the Grant Unit for training on how to complete and submit claims.

If you have any questions regarding the letter of interest, please email [email protected]

Sincerely,

Paul Tupy
Director

Contact

Additional information may be obtained by contacting:

Grant Unit
3927 Lennane Drive, Suite 100
Sacramento, CA 95834
Email: [email protected]
Phone: (916) 928-9807
Fax: (916) 928-7625