Selling tobacco to people under 21 is now illegal in many parts of the metro, including KCMO. One of the police department's elite squads is responsible of enforcing the law.
Sgt. Brad Dumit has spent the last 13 years with the Kansas City Police Department's Vice Unit. Ever since city leaders raised the age to 21 to buy tobacco products, this unit has stepped up their enforcement.
41 Action News recently rode along with the squad as they did an alcohol and tobacco enforcement night. On this night, Dumit and three vice members have a teenage girl as a decoy.
"Anything could happen at any given time," Dumit said.
For this enforcement check, they focused on metro patrol that includes Troost Avenue.
"You kind of watch the place first to make sure that it's not getting robbed, that there's no disturbance going on inside the place, that sort of thing, and then afterward when we do effect the arrest, we make sure that our informant is way out of the area, because a lot of times people will get angry with them," Dumit said
Dumit says they've received more complaints of stores selling tobacco to minors since the law went into effect last November. He says it's taking some owners and clerks time to learn the law. The excuses they come across are the typical ones like he or she looked old enough. But this unit isn't always looking to hand out citations.
"A lot of times when we go in and buy and they turn us away, we'll go back later too and tell them good job, you know we were in here. We obviously don't do it the same night, we don't want them to see and know what was in there," Dumit said.
During our ride-along, we made 11 stops. One of the stores was given a citation for selling alcohol to a minor, but none of them sold tobacco to the decoy.
"Make sure you card everybody that goes in, don't take anyone for granted when somebody walks into your store and that way you won't be at fault," Dumit said.
If you're caught selling to a minor, you can spend up to six months in jail or pay a $500 fine.
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Andres Gutierrez can be reached at andres.gutierrez@kshb.com
