Watertown police describe enforcement checks after seven failures; council renews licenses, owners pledge more training

Chief Michael Toomey of the Watertown Police Department outlined the department’s alcohol compliance-check process and recent results during a multi-hour City Council hearing Monday that covered renewals for multiple liquor and malt-beverage licenses.

“To ensure compliance we typically do these checks two to four times a year,” Toomey said. He described the department’s procedure: officers recruit a volunteer aged 18–20, who is instructed to present a real ID and request service; the visits are recorded. Toomey said investigators avoid using minors under 18 so arrests are not required for enforcement checks.

Toomey said the March 19 compliance checks used a 20-year-old volunteer and resulted in seven failures. He framed the checks as part of a broader prevention strategy: "Juvenile, underage consumption is a huge social issue in our community... Over the past five years, our five‑year average, this last year, we were 41% over our five‑year average for…