Just a week earlier, authorities say they found two boys, ages 16 and 18, drinking beer at a table in the very same bar, the Knights Lounge on Park Marina Drive in Redding. The microphone sputters and pops as the kids walk to the bar. That's usually the question that makes officers relax. If an employee asks for ID, the odds they'll sell to a minor are pretty low. The decoys use their own IDs with their real ages for the transactions.
Officers swarm the bar, confronting the bartender and calling the owner.
They recover the money used by the teens marked with ink stars as evidence the alleged transaction was made. They quickly snap Polaroid photos with the bartender and the decoy, then grab samples of the alcohol as evidence. A misdemeanor citation is issued, and the case forwarded to the district attorney for review. They may have nabbed a lenient bartender, but Nance isn't happy. Police say they judge the effectiveness of the so-called ''decoy operations'' on how few citations they issue, not how many.