{"id":95169,"date":"2019-03-12T09:51:53","date_gmt":"2019-03-12T15:51:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/police-take-proactive-approach-to-problems-at-colorado-pongas\/"},"modified":"2019-03-12T09:51:53","modified_gmt":"2019-03-12T15:51:53","slug":"police-take-proactive-approach-to-problems-at-colorado-pongas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/police-take-proactive-approach-to-problems-at-colorado-pongas\/","title":{"rendered":"Police take proactive approach to problems at Colorado Pongas"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"Durango
Durango Police Department Officer Shayla Wakefield, in front of Colorado Pongas on Friday, often makes bar checks in downtown Durango. DPD has been training Pongas employees in alcohol serving practices for more than a year with guidance from ServSafe.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Durango police decided more than a year ago that remedial measures would better address liquor license violations at Colorado Pongas rather than punitive ones. And it seems to be working, city officials said.<\/p>\n

Durango Police Department has been training Pongas employees for more than a year with guidance from ServSafe<\/a>, a National Restaurant Association program designed to train restaurant and food-service professionals in best practices for food and alcohol service.<\/p>\n

Since the DPD\u2019s community engagement team started working with Pongas, Cmdr. Ray Shupe said training, collaboration and cooperation with safe serving practices \u201chas been very positive.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIn the end, we\u2019re all working toward the same goal \u2013 we want them to be prosperous and we want to reduce the impact that over-service of alcohol can have on the community,\u201d Shupe said.<\/p>\n

Reducing excessive service of alcohol addresses the root cause of problems downtown, Shupe said. Many of the crimes police respond to downtown \u2013 including assaults, sexual assaults and thefts \u2013 are often committed by people who are too drunk, he said.<\/p>\n

The police department\u2019s objective, Shupe said, is to work with downtown businesses to address drunkenness rather than deal with more serious crimes stemming from alcohol abuse.<\/p>\n

Police could have imposed punitive measures, but Pongas\u2019 owners were willing to work with the department, Shupe said. Pongas\u2019 willingness to work with the police department means the business could still operate, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur intent is not to shut down businesses, but to bring businesses into compliance so we\u2019re all playing by the same rules,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean punitive measures are off the table, just deferred to give the business an opportunity to correct violations, Shupe said.<\/p>\n

\"Durango
Durango Police Department Officer Shayla Wakefield, in front of Colorado Pongas on Friday, often makes bar checks in downtown Durango. The police department\u2019s objective is to work with downtown businesses to address drunkenness rather than deal with more serious crimes stemming from alcohol abuse, Cmdr. Ray Shupe says.<\/span>Jerry McBride\/Durango Herald<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Ryan Brungard, an attorney representing Pongas\u2019 owners, said his clients have benefited from a working relationship with the police department. Bar owners face \u201cunique operational challenges,\u201d Brungard said, and addressing those issues in collaboration with Durango Police Department \u201ccan be really positive,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cBars are going to have issues; working together to address those issues is a positive thing,\u201d Brungard said.<\/p>\n

Dave Woodruff, president of the Colorado Restaurant Association, Durango chapter, said he\u2019s happy to see the police department working with Pongas rather than punishing it. It\u2019s important for police to work with the community so when things do go wrong, law enforcement can build rapport with residents or business owners to seek positive solutions, he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that\u2019s a more proactive approach rather than reactive,\u201d Woodruff said. \u201cI like seeing a more upstream endeavor to try and prevent this.\u201d<\/p>\n

And punitive measures don\u2019t always work.<\/p>\n

If someone loses a liquor license, it\u2019s not too difficult to get a family member to apply for a liquor license to open and operate another bar, Woodruff said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always a work-around, so by utilizing a more community-benefit approach, it\u2019s better for everybody,\u201d Woodruff said.<\/p>\n

Safe alcohol service is not new to Durango\u2019s restaurants, Woodruff said. For at least a few years, a current of compliance swept through Durango\u2019s restaurants and bars. It\u2019s a business\u2019s duty to ensure community members who imbibe at its establishment do so safely and responsibly, he said.<\/p>\n

Woodruff himself is trained as a ServSafe instructor, and he tries to offer trainings at restaurants at least once a quarter.<\/p>\n

And there\u2019s a constant need for training, Shupe said. Turnover at restaurants and bars is often high, and new employees always need training in safe alcohol service practices.<\/p>\n

Police officers will continue their enforcement checks on bars around Durango, Shupe said.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur intent is to have every bar downtown in 100 percent compliance with the liquor code,\u201d he said. \u201cWhen we feel we\u2019re successful is when we do a compliance check and we don\u2019t find a violation.\u201d<\/p>\n

bhauff@durangoherald.com<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

positive results working with pool hall on liquor license violations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":95170,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5736,5735],"tags":[924,314,13,450],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-95169","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news","category-news","tag-alcohol","tag-downtown-durango","tag-frontpage-lead","tag-restaurant-and-catering"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95169","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=95169"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/95169\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/95170"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=95169"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=95169"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=95169"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=95169"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}