For several years now, law enforcement has been taking measures to prevent underage drinking. With the help of new ID readers and stricter protocols, law enforcement hopes underage drinking numbers will decrease. New York State law enforcement is being especially careful this summer concert season.

New York Governor Cuomo has announced a the beginning of a new program, “Operation Prevent”. Through this program, the DMV, the State Liquor Authority, and law enforcement will all work together to ensure underage drinking laws are followed and strictly enforced at concert venues across the state.

Since the beginning of May, Western New York has had 43 arrests for underage drinking or the use of fake IDs. These arrests were just from two concerts, both at Darien Lake Amphitheater.

Unfortunately, alcohol is the most commonly used substance among teenagers in the United States. Underage drinking is a major concern throughout the country. Not only is it against the law, but underage drinking can lead to other concerns later on in life.

But with the help of the right technology in today’s ID readers, law enforcement and liquor retailers can prevent underage drinking.

Without a driver license reader, liquor retailers and club employees have to rely on their own judgment to decide whether or not an ID is real or fake. But this can be difficult to do, especially with a very realistic-looking ID. Not only that, but employees see a lot of IDs every day — especially with about 218 million people in the U.S. having driver’s licenses in 2015 alone. This is where driver license scanners come in. With one quick scan, ID readers can determine whether or not an ID is real.

ID scanners utilize integrated technology to read the information on the ID by scanning the magnetic stripe. This stripe on the back of an ID stores information that can only be on a real ID. So if a fake ID card is scanned, there will be no information stored on the card itself. This quickly tells the user of the scanner that the ID is fake.

As you can see, ID scanners are extremely important in today’s society. More and more establishments are beginning to use ID readers not only because of the convenience, but because they can truly help prevent underage drinking.