In a recent March 2, 2026, Hastings City Council meeting, within the consent agenda items were four
failed alcohol compliance checks by local establishments. KDWA connected with Deputy Police Chief Bryan Schowalter for further insight about compliance checks conducted by the police department.
“We are statutorily mandated to do compliance checks for both liquor and alcohol. So, the state actually requires every law enforcement agency that has a facility that sells liquor or alcohol to send an underage buyer in in the attempt of making a purchase. I’ll expand a little bit, just because now, with the introduction of THC and marijuana laws, we are also obligated to do those as well. So now the City of Hastings, or the Hastings Police Department, will be doing compliance checks at every establishment in town that sells tobacco, alcohol, or any THC product. Now that we kind of have a foundation about what they are and that we’re required to do them, the process, when it actually comes to these, varies depending on what the business has done. So, if a business has done what’s called Best Practices training. That is where the city will host training to help bartenders and servers recognize impairment. If they go through that training, then their fines and fees are reduced upon a failure during a compliance check. Now that varies a little bit, depending on if this is a subsequent violation or how many times they’ve violated state statute regarding sales, but there is some variance. So, a business that has never done any of the compliance check training and then gets caught selling to an underage person will be looking at a full fine, but a business that’s done the compliance check training and then gets caught, they’ll be looking at a 50% reduction. So again, this is something we’re mandated to do. We have to do it annually, and then, depending on the training that the staff members had, it really dictates what the fine will be imposed by the city council.”
Deputy Police Chief Showalter shares the reason for the sporadic compliance checks and has this final message for the public.
“You know what it really comes down to is the health and safety of our juveniles, or even, you know, now that everything is a 21-year-old limit, at least for the health and safety of those under 21, we don’t want to have a bunch of 16-, 17-, 18-, and 19-year-olds going in and buying alcohol or buying tobacco and marijuana products. So, it’s for the health and safety of the public, and we’re allowing brains to fully develop before they start making these decisions, which could be, you know, mind-altering. So, it is for the health and safety of everybody. I’m hoping that the public understands that we are doing exactly what we’re mandated to do, and often we do multiple compliance checks in a year. If we receive tips from the public or complaints from the public that a specific business or facility is selling alcohol or tobacco to underage individuals, we may do additional compliance checks. So, it’s something we do every year. There are years when we have three or four people who fail, and then there are years when we have, you know, 100% compliance, and everyone does a great job of checking IDs. So, it’s really, really random, but we’re proud of what we do, and we can’t thank the decoys that help us out enough.”
To listen to the full broadcast, click the soundbite.