CITY KEEPS CLOSE TABS ON LIQUOR LICENSES

Liquor licenses are serious business, and it's good to see that the city of Cape Girardeau takes care with their issuance and renewal.

It's no secret that alcohol excesses by customers can lead to incidents of assault or worse. The number of times police are called to businesses that serve liquor is closely monitored by Cape Girardeau police.

A police overview of calls is reviewed by the City Council when it considers renewal of all liquor licenses. Mostly, that renewal process is a matter of routine. But if an establishment has been the site of numerous altercations, it comes under strict scrutiny both from the police and City Council.

That's not to say all misbehavior of customers are the fault of a restaurant or bar. But how the establishment handles the problems and cooperates with police can make a real the difference.

Some establishments may be tempted to not report assaults since the council puts so much emphasis on the number of police calls. But it is the law that they do so. Underreporting such incidents also works against an establishment.

The police department works with receptive bars and restaurants to teach employees how to handle situations that could lead to fights among customers. In this way, establishments can help themselves in working to lower the number of fights.

It's also important that decisions over liquor licenses stay local. Local government should be able to police establishments that serve liquor and control the issuance of those licenses.

A loophole in state laws has allowed at least one local bar to get a resort liquor license after being turned down by the city. In the months before the city's denial, police had made dozens of calls to the bar. The list of complaints included 27 assaults. The bar then applied and received a resort license that allowed them to serve liquor. A renewal of the license has been turned down by the state, but it is under appeal.

Obviously, this sidestepping of local control of liquor sales is not what the state had in mind when it set up the guidelines for a resort liquor license. It's good to keep the matter of policing establishments that serve liquor in the hands of local governments. That helps ensure the public safety for all citizens.