title: Patterns of Alcohol Policy Enforcement Activities among Local Law Enforcement Agencies: A Latent Class Analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  We assessed levels and patterns of alcohol policy enforcement activities among U.S. local law enforcement agencies.
  
  
  METHODS
  We conducted a cross-sectional survey of a representative sample of 1,631 local law enforcement agencies across the 50 states.
  We assessed 29 alcohol policy enforcement activities within each of five enforcement domains-underage alcohol possession/consumption, underage alcohol provision, underage alcohol sales, impaired driving, and overservice of alcohol-and conducted a series of latent class analyses to identify unique classes or patterns of enforcement activity for each domain.
  
  
  RESULTS
  We identified three to four unique enforcement activity classes for each of the enforcement domains. In four of the domains, we identified a Uniformly Low class (i.e., little or no enforcement) and a Uniformly High enforcement activity class (i.e., relatively high levels of enforcement), with one or two middle classes where some but not all activities were conducted. The underage provision domain had a Uniformly Low class but not a Uniformly High class. The Uniformly Low class was the most prevalent class in three domains: underage provision (58%), underage sales (61%), and overservice (79%). In contrast, less than a quarter of agencies were in Uniformly High classes.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  We identified qualitatively distinct patterns of enforcement activity, with a large proportion of agencies in classes characterized by little or no enforcement and fewer agencies in high enforcement classes. An important next step is to determine if these patterns are associated with rates of alcohol use and alcohol-related injury and mortality.
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Community Health School of Public Health University of Minnesota.
authors.forename: Darin J
authors.initials: DJ
authors.lastname: Erickson
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Allegheny College.
authors.forename: Patricia C
authors.initials: PC
authors.lastname: Rutledge
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Community Health School of Public Health University of Minnesota.
authors.forename: Kathleen M
authors.initials: KM
authors.lastname: Lenk
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Community Health School of Public Health University of Minnesota.
authors.forename: Toben F
authors.initials: TF
authors.lastname: Nelson
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Community Health School of Public Health University of Minnesota.
authors.forename: Rhonda
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Jones-Webb
authors.affiliation: Division of Epidemiology and Community Health School of Public Health University of Minnesota.
authors.forename: Traci L
authors.initials: TL
authors.lastname: Toomey
keywords: Alcohol; Enforcement; Latent Class Analysis