Increased Alcohol Enforcement In Downtown Mobile

State alcohol control officials say they have stepped up enforcement of private clubs in downtown Mobile.
However, a Mobile city council member has some concerns.
Officials with the Alcoholic Beverage Control Board, or ABC board, said they have found some of the clubs are not complying with state regulations they're supposed to follow.
Lieutenant Michael Cook with the ABC Board said, "(There's) no particular reason why we increase enforcement down there other than we get complaints in the office. We get complaints from city council members, from the city of Mobile police department. They'll call and its just an ongoing problem, and we decided it was time to go down there and get people on Dauphin Street in compliance."
Cook said when ABC agents first started getting complaints, almost all of the private clubs had some type of license violation.
Private clubs differ from lounges in that they can serve alcohol between 2 am and noon on Sundays.
But they must also issue membership cards.
When asked what some of the violations have been, Lieutenant Cook said, "Allowing non-members to come in because a private club is only open to bonafide members and bonafide guests of members."
But Councilman William Carroll said he saw something that worried him when he went downtown with business leaders one night recently.
Carroll said, "The ABC Board was out in force. I mean, seven or eight ABC Board enforcement officers lined up in a row, all going into a club. It seems like it may have been an intimidation factor and that really, really concerned me."
Private club owners aren't talking on camera, but some said they worry that theres an organized campaign to shut them down, or have them close by 2 am on Sunday.
Lieutenant Cook said, "Absolutely not. We're not here to put anybody out of business. We're here just to bring them into compliance."
In fact, he said there have been fewer violations in recent weeks.
Lieutenant Cook added, "Once we get them (the private clubs) into compliance, we may move our enforcement efforts somewhere else. We're not going to go away, but we may not be there as regular as we are now."