Golden City Police Department handed out 14 liquor violations to employees at local establishments throughout the city during the department’s annual liquor compliance checks in Dec. 2013.

The employees, who will face the city’s liquor hearing officer, were cited for selling alcohol to underage persons at restaurants and liquor stores including Grappas, Bridgewater Grill, the Briarwood Inn and El Dorado, to name a few.

A total of 62 businesses were canvassed for the compliance checks, leaving most Golden businesses with a 77 percent success rate in not selling to an under-aged person. Businesses were notified of the pending checks 60 days before they began.

“There were a higher number of violations this year in comparison to previous years,” Detective Matt Cole with the Golden Police Department said. “Obviously having the amount of violations we did this year is concerning and we will need to take steps to ensure better compliance rates.”

Last year, businesses in Golden were handed six violations, with 2010 seeing a mere two citations.

Other cities in Jefferson County like Arvada saw an 81.48 percent compliance rate in 2013, a 23 percent increase from the previous year. The number of Arvada merchants checked was lower than that of Golden with 27 establishments checked, and five citations. Lakewood reported that out of 175 checks conducted by Lakewood police, with the assistance of the Colorado State Patrol, 13 businesses were cited last year.

“The Golden Police Department would prefer to see 100 percent compliance, meaning we would like to see zero violations,” Cole said. “The best way of doing this is trying to educate the business owners and their employees through classes such as TIPS training and to complete additional compliance checks.”

TIPS which stands for Training for Intervention Procedures provides certification for owners and staff through education on the signs of intoxication and when to cut the alcohol supply to an inebriated consumer. In the end, TIPS’ mission is to teach the responsible sale of alcohol which includes that necessary request for an ID.