Imagine this. You’re sitting in your favorite bar nursing a drink and wondering how you’re going to convince the waitress to give you her phone number. Without warning three cops walk in, push behind the bar and start poking around with their flashlights, making everyone in the room very nervous. As you gather up your belongings and discreetly make your way towards the door, would you assume that this was a raid? Would you guess that the cops were looking for drugs, guns or child pornography? Would you believe they were looking for fruit flies?
Fruit flies are drawn to alcoholic beverages and bar owners are required by the state law to keep them out of liquor bottles as a matter of public health. As part of the routine inspections by the Department of Health (DOH) bars are inspected for fruit flies and any venue that has fruit flies on or in the bottles is subject to a fine that could run between $700 and $1,000 per infested bottle. This is a normal part of the nightlife business and isn’t really a cause of concern among operators. The problem arises in the way the law has recently been enforced. Even if you are a nightlife native who frequents various venues, you have probably never seen a DOH inspection taking place. That’s because inspectors keep a relatively low profile while conducting their business. Patrons usually have no idea what is going on and they don’t have to. But there have been reports of layoffs at the DOH, which could mean fewer inspectors. But inspections still need to be conducted, especially since every violation can lead to fines that cash strapped city and state governments are desperately looking for. So somehow the DOH has been replaced with the NYPD who is anything but low profile when they come into the bar.
One operator commented on the climate that the NYPD creates; “By sending a uniformed officers from the NYPD behind your bar with a flashlight looking for fruit flies and whatever else they can find at the height of your business hours creates a stressful situation for you and your customers. It looks like a crime was committed in your place and they are looking for evidence. It gets people talking about your establishment in ways you don't want.”
Bar and lounge owners in various parts of the city have described this scenario happening in their bars with increasing frequency. Some operators think that the NYPD has been given a mandate to perform random inspections as a way to “find” violations and provide the city and the state with much needed revenue. Various operators have voiced opinions about the situation: “What they are thinking is that they are going to get funds for a broke state and city no matter what the consequences. No thought is given to the outcome except that those cops better come back with some violations. With cops conducting their random inspections, we are at the whim of whoever is giving these cops the orders to do these. It is much more invasive and detrimental to our businesses. “I don't think this has anything to with revenge against a particular venue. All bars are suffering this treatment. This has more to do with the city's need to collect more revenue in the shape of fines and the fact that they've laid off a number of health inspectors.”
So instead of increasing state revenue by working with the nightlife industry, local government is trying to increase state revenue by intimidating and attacking it, using the police as its instrument. We have pointed out in previous articles that ending the backlog in liquor license applications and increasing the number of venues would actually increase state revenue significantly. And as dangerous as fruit flies are to public health, the police are probably better utilized deterring and preventing crime outside of venues instead of poking around behind the bar looking for bugs. We know that the state wants to use liquor consumption as cash cow and nightlife is an economic resource that the city can use for its benefit, but only if it takes more of a cooperative stance instead of being antagonistic.
Unfortunately, some operators don’t see things getting better because they don't feel the lobbying efforts are strong enough to support their position. “With all due respect to our lobbying groups, I really don't think they have the stomach for this kind of fight. We are just going to have to put up with this intrusive behavior by our government and keep our bars as clean as possible.”
So if you see a couple of cops climb behind your favorite bar, it might not be a raid. It might just be an abusive health inspection.
Have fun.
Gamal
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