Fake IDs...Real Penalties

In Missouri, possession of a fake ID is a Class A misdemeanor, bringing with it up to $1,000 in fines and a year in jail. In Greene County, fake IDs are treated the same as MIPs, according to Cami LaFollette, an investigator for Greene County Prosecutor Darrell Moore.

According to numbers provided by LaFollette, of 52 underage drinking convictions to date in 2006, nine were for possession of a fake ID. Of 42 total fake ID citations in 2006, there were nine convictions, but that relatively low number is not because the cases were flawed or prosecutors lax, LaFollette says. Thirty-seven of those citations were declined by prosecutors because the subjects opted to take a diversion program. First-time fake ID offenders are given the opportunity to take the class-the same one offered first-time MIP offenders-and avoid further court action (the class does cost $100 to attend). On second offenses prosecutors usually offer a 30-day suspended jail sentence and a $500 fine with $250 of that suspended. Both suspended penalties are pending two years of probation.

Though "only" misdemeanors, false ID charges are not something to take lightly; these are criminal charges, not traffic offenses, and stay on your record until you are 21-permanently if you have more than one alcohol-related conviction. Such an offense on your record can prevent you from being hired for  jobs, getting into colleges or graduate schools (especially law programs, LaFollette says) and can damage your chances of working in law enforcement.

But the county needs help to start most cases; unless a fake ID is found in a separate incident (like a traffic or MIP stop) prosecutors rely on bar owners and retailers to send them confiscated fakes. LaFollette says only a handful of businesses-none of them downtown-in the past have regularly sent in confiscated IDs (Brown Derby, for one). However, since the bar ban became a full-throttle issue last summer, more business have been cooperating (including Icon Nightclub, says owner Paul Sundy).

But the county isn't the only jurisdiction on the prowl. Since the passage of an underage drinking ordinance backed by the Hospitality Resource Panel last summer, fake IDs have carried a minimum penalty of a $500 fine from the Springfield Police Department. "I hope people realize that's still in effect, even though the ordinance changed [in November]," says Mark Coe, owner of Jordan Creek, a downtown all-ages dance club. Coe says Jordan Creek worked closely with the SPD this fall, raking in close to 20 fake IDs-that's $10,000 in fines-in less than a month. That did the trick. "We see one fake ID per week now, where we were seeing 10 or so." When the police are involved, the $500 tickets can be written on the spot or the person can be arrested (which Coe says recently happened to a young woman who was busted with a fake ID twice in three nights at Jordan Creek).

Rusty Worley, executive director of the Urban Districts Alliance and facilitator of the HRP, says such efforts with the SPD have curtailed fake ID usage and helped business owners and police work more closely, building trust where there used to be none. "Long term, that will produce a lot more results than just trying to develop really restrictive ordinances," Worley says.