New 21-only law may ease police strain

Fewer underage drinkers at bars could mean more cops on the streets.

That's what law enforcement officials in Johnson County are saying about the potential impact of Iowa City's new minimum bar entry age rule.

More than one-third of all bookings at the Johnson County Jail come from public intoxication arrests among 18-20 year olds.

Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek thinks Iowa City's new ordinance that prohibits anyone under 21 from being in a bar after 10 p.m. could ease the strain on the law enforcement community.

“Right now on those busy, busy weekends we could have officers wait up to an hour up front because there are so many people we are trying to book in and we can only go a certain speed,” Pulkrabek said.

That constant flow of bookings leaves little time for officers to meet other needs.

”As for our staff there are other things that they can be doing in the jail but literally on those busy nights what it may come down to is they actually get a break they actually get to sit down and have a pop or have a sandwich,” Pulkrabek said.

For Iowa City, shorter waiting times to book an offender could translate into officers focusing on crime prevention.

”Just us being out on the street – officer presence so we're keeping down those assaults, people having problems with car burglaries,” said Sgt. Denise Brotherton.  “Any time we're out there and we can prevent that instead of an officer sitting down at the jail for an hour that's one less body on the street.”

Sgt. Brotherton says more officers out patrolling equals a safer community.

”The later at night it gets the more violent the calls become, the needs for multiple officer incidents so the more bodies we have it is safer for the officer, safer for the person we're dealing with, safer for the public,” she said.

Sheriff Pulkrabek agreed saying, “anytime they have an officer that isn't waiting down here and out patrolling that's a positive.”

The Sheriff says no one knows if the new 21-only law will have any effect on decreased booking times.

Researchers tell him it's likely they will be able to identify some kind of trend this fall.