Students still use, obtain fake IDs despite police crackdown

With online technology developing at a rapid rate, fake IDs are becoming easier to manufacture and obtain. Bloomington remains one of the top Indiana cities in fake ID use.

Maj. Robin Poindexter of the Indiana State Excise Police said the force as a whole catches between 1,500 and 2,000 fake IDs a year, most commonly in college towns such as Bloomington, Muncie and West Lafayette.

Poindexter said he thinks if students understood all of the repercussions of using a fake ID, they would be less likely to try.

“I don’t think they realize they are risking losing their real driver’s license in addition to receiving a fine and a possible jail sentence for the false ID,” he said.

But various Web sites and manufacturers provide ways for anyone to obtain a fake ID. For instance, an online search of “fake ID” generates thousands of sites offering places and ways to get “a novelty good fake ID,” along with YouTube videos demonstrating how to create your own.

“With the technology and printers that exist now, with digital picture software on computers, the average person is able to make pretty decent-looking fake IDs,” Poindexter said.

While some students are using IDs that are not government-issued, others are borrowing IDs from friends or using IDs from different states. But these days, bartenders and bouncers are getting smarter and making it harder for those trying to get into bars.

Many people claim to have lost their ID, said Jessica Rang, a bartender at Hoosier Bar & Grill in Richland Plaza. There, a policy states absolutely no person is allowed to come into the bar area without an ID, not even someone who is 50 years old.

Some bouncers and store clerks have developed clever ways to weed out fakes.

“When you go to bars, you have to be on a different level of alertness,” said junior Kevin Fagan.

Fagan said doormen ask individuals questions about high school mascots, astrological signs and even the streets they take home when patrons present their IDs.

“You can tell when someone is inexperienced and when it is their first time in a bar,” Fagan said, explaining how confidence, older looks and multiple forms of ID will make an underage person appear much more mature and responsible.

Even though fake IDs are rampant throughout the large college campus, students like sophomore Eve Servaas are still excited to be of legal age to drink alcohol.

“At midnight when you turn 21, you are out there celebrating,” Servaas said. “It’s still huge. You have so many more privileges. It was just unreal going to a bar and being able to buy alcohol.”

In order to maintain maturity at the bars, Servaas said she strongly believes the drinking age should stay at 21. But she added teens are going to drink no matter what the age limits are.

Younger crowds must be aware of the extensive training excise officers take on, said Ron Stanhouse, manager of Crazy Horse, as he explained how excise police know how to spot fake IDs by using special tools involving comparisons, lights and books representing IDs from all 50 states.

“As soon as you touch it, you can almost tell that it’s fake,” said John Munden, a bartender at Nick’s English Hut, describing how the lamination and photos of the fake IDs are distinctly different from real ones.

In most circumstances, fake IDs in bars will be confiscated, and the underage individuals will be asked to leave the premises, Stanhouse said. In some extreme cases, bars have a right to notify the police if behaviors get out of hand.

“You really have to ask yourself,” Stanhouse said, “‘Is it really worth the risk?’”