Checking Identification and Recordkeeping Documentation
Card every time, everyone
There is no exception for regulars, for gray hair, for a person you carded twenty minutes ago, or for the person who is only paying while someone else drinks. Check each member of a group, check the payer, and check again on the next visit because a card can change hands. Consistency is what an investigator looks for and what a civil jury hears about.
What to record
- Refusal and incident log: date, time, apparent age, the specific reason, what you observed, who was notified, and what you did with any ID.
- Fake ID log: date, time, the document type, and whether it was returned or held under house policy.
- Training records and sign-off sheets showing each employee was trained on carding and refusal.
- Keep these records for the period ABLE requires and produce them on request during an inspection.
Write facts, not conclusions
'Slurred speech, could not stand still, spilled a drink at 11:35, refused service, offered water and a cab' is a record. 'Customer was drunk and we cut him off' is an opinion that helps nobody, including you.
Worked example
A 30-year-old regular is carded on every visit and jokes about it. Later, a compliance check finds no violation, and a separate dispute arises over whether the house cards consistently. Reasoning: the ID-check log showing repeated checks of the same regular is exactly the evidence that answers the question, and it costs seconds per visit.
Traps
- Recording nothing because 'nothing happened'; an empty log looks like no policy.
- Reconstructing a log from memory at the end of the week.
- Photographing or copying IDs without a real need, which creates a privacy problem.
- Writing only the date and 'refused service' with no reason, time or observation.