Reporting police calls at clubs to beverage control focus of meeting

Months after a mass shooting at a Little Rock nightclub, lawmakers Tuesday discussed whether state alcohol regulators should receive reports on every police-involved incident at bars, restaurants and nightclubs across the state.

State Sen. Eddie Joe Williams, R-Cabot, is behind an interim study proposal that would require Alcoholic Beverage Control to receive reports about police intervention at premises licensed to serve alcohol by the drink.

Lawmakers, he said, have a duty to ensure a safe environment in such establishments, since the state issues the alcohol permits.

“If you’ve got a lot of illegal activity around a club, you’ve got a powder keg,” Williams said. He said the focus for lawmakers should be on public safety, even though bars and nightclubs might raise large amounts of tax revenue for cities.

The Tuesday discussion took place at a joint meeting of the Senate and House committees on state agencies and governmental affairs.

Speaking before lawmakers, Boyce Hamlet, director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Enforcement Division, stated that his top priority is public safety but that there is no formal process by which local law enforcement agencies notify his agency.

“Local jurisdictions are pretty good about getting us the stuff we need to know, especially jurisdictions that have more alcohol permits,” he said.

Yet, Hamlet said, not every police-involved incident at a bar or restaurant necessarily needs to be reported to Alcoholic Beverage Control because some incidents — such as vehicle break-ins outside an establishment — are not related to the business’s alcohol license.

A July 1 shooting at the Power Ultra Lounge in downtown Little Rock in the early

morning hours left 25 people injured. Three others were injured trying to escape the club. The shooting attracted national attention and led to creation of a joint task force to address a surge in crime in Little Rock. The task force is led by the FBI and consists of 10 agencies from the local, state and federal level. Federal officials have said the task force is targeting gangs and violent crime in Little Rock.

Local and state authorities responded to at least 37 civil and criminal complaints at the club over four years before the July shooting.

Hamlet said his agency knew that the Power Ultra Lounge was a problem, but the problems were not severe enough for state regulators to pull the club’s permit.

“We were doing what we could, inside our ability and powers, to take care of it,” he said.

When asked if there was anything that could have been done to stop the July shooting, Hamlet said he did not have an answer.

Mary Robin Casteel, director of the Alcoholic Beverage Control Administration Division, said there should be

harsher penalties for nightclubs that violate Alcoholic Beverage Control regulations.

“The maximum fine that ABC has is $1,000 for a violation, which is completely ineffective,” she said.

For nightclubs that charge $40 a head and pack in hundreds of people, a $1,000 fine is not enough to stop the behavior, she said. Casteel said $3,000 is the highest amount Alcoholic Beverage Control can levy against a business over a year.

Casteel said the agency does have the power to suspend or revoke a permit, but that can happen only if a club does not pay its taxes or gives false information on its application.

The legislative panel will meet on the topic two more times, Williams said. It was unclear Tuesday when the second and third meetings will be held.