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BPD to Conduct Tobacco Compliance Checks

Bellevue Police Officers are conducting tobacco compliance checks at stores in the city that sell tobacco products through November. The goal is to determine whether the stores would sell such products to people under 18 years old. Plain clothed officers will work with minors who will attempt to purchase tobacco products. Clerks who sell tobacco to the minors will be cited for the violation.

Tobacco and compliance checks are a way to make sure stores that have licenses are abiding by the laws of the State of Nebraska. Sometimes the owners of these establishments are unaware of what type of sales violations are going on when they are not around. BPD’s Officer Reed explained, "These types of operations are not set out to "trap" the clerks. The police and teens who work for us operate by a specific set of rules and our teens are not allowed to lie to the clerks about their true age, they simply present their actual state ID. It’s up to the clerk to physically check the age."

The minors who are working with the police have valid state ID’s or operators licenses that state their legal age. It isn’t legal to use fake ID’s during these operations. The project was made possible through a grant from PRIDE Omaha.