The number of illegal consumption arrests by the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office and Albert Lea Police Department combined were 6 percent lower in 2009 than the previous six years, according to data released by the county’s Zero Adult Provider Committee.

The data states the number of illegal consumption arrests in Albert Lea during 2009 was 14 percent lower than the previous six-year average. The number of arrests by the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office in the same span, however, was 15 percent higher than their average.

Together, there was a 6 percent decrease in arrests during the year.

The Police Department specifically saw 194 illegal consumption arrests during 2009, compared to the 226 six-year average, according to the data. The Sheriff’s Office saw 87 illegal consumption arrests in 2009, while the six-year average was 74.

Albert Lea Police Lt. J.D. Carlson, who is also the chairman of the ZAP committee, said it is his hope that the city’s numbers are down compared to the six-year average because of the newly implemented social host ordinance in 2009.

Under the social host ordinance, which was approved by the Albert Lea City Council at the beginning of 2009, police have the capability to hold Albert Leans criminally responsible who knowingly allow three or more underage people to drink alcohol in their residences. The ordinance seeks to eliminate the venue of illegal alcohol consumption.

Carlson speculated as to whether the Sheriff’s Office increase in illegal consumptions was also because of the social host ordinance, in that people who would have otherwise held parties in the city were deciding to move those parties into the county, where there is not currently a social host ordinance.

According to the data, 13 offenders were charged with Albert Lea’s social host ordinance during 2009 and nine adult providers were identified.

While some people feared the use of the ordinance, Albert Lea City Attorney Lee Bjorndal said he thinks the social host ordinance was appropriately used during its first year.

“It’s been a good law to have in place,” Bjorndal said. “It hasn’t been overused; it hasn’t been misused. It really fills a gap.”

Freeborn County Partners in Prevention Coalition Director Alice Englin, who is also on the ZAP committee, said she believes illegal consumption is down overall from the previous six-year average because of collaboration among several community partners during the past five years.

Much of this collaboration began in 2005 when the ZAP program was formed. The Albert Lea Police Department partnered with the Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office, judges, prosecutors, court services, public health, schools and other community organizations to take a strong stance against underage drinking and to aggressively identify the adult provider, according to a news release.

The ZAP program is grant-funded and aims to combat underage drinking and address adult providers. According to the release, the goal of the group is to raise public awareness on alcohol use among youth and to change the community norm that exists regarding underage drinking in Freeborn County.

Following the formation of the ZAP program in 2005, the city adopted a best practices ordinance in 2006, which directs the Police Department to provide server training to employees of establishments with alcohol licenses. The purpose of these training sessions is to prevent illegal alcohol sales.

“We are working together to reduce youth alcohol use,” Englin said.

She, too, noted she thinks the social host ordinance has also been another tool law enforcement can use to help decrease underage consumption.

Carlson said the ZAP committee is going to continue to pursue a social host ordinance for Freeborn County.

A social host ordinance was approved in December in Mower County, after the approval of the ordinance in Austin in November.

“We’re putting the word out to county commissioners and other people in the community,” Carlson said.

Assistant Freeborn County Attorney Erin O’Brien said, in regard to illegal consumptions, she thinks many of the cases her office deals with — which are from outside of Albert Lea — are from the same group of juveniles who want to drink.

She talked about one juvenile who had gotten arrested for minor consumption every week for six straight weeks.