ABC Police Force? Why is this a thing?

The Virginia Department of Alcohol Beverage Control has a police force of 130, according to the Washington Post. I’m guessing that was not a well known fact before a few of them approached Martese Johnson. Why the ABC police were empowered to approach and arrest him should be a serious question, and thanks to Delegate David Toscano, it is at least being asked (same link):

The ABC folks should be inside the restaurant and enforcing the law related to serving underage people instead of outside trying to deal with a problem that is more appropriately dealt with by the local police

Note to the Department, when a Charlottesville-area Democrat believes your agency has too broad a reach, your agency has too broad a reach.

Truth be told, it should be an open question as to why the ABC has a police force at all. Buried in enough bureaucratic layers to avoid general executive oversight, and funded by liquor sales which discourages legislative oversight, the ABC has an accountability problem.

Moreover, and more to the point, it is hard to see what the ABC does regarding enforcement – even enforcement of alcohol distribution – that can’t be handled by the State Police or local police.

What fuels the ABC – police force included – is the agency’s monopoly on liquor sales, a monopoly Bob McDonnell tried to end (to the point of removing tax increases in his plan once objections were raised to them). At the time, the plan was felled by inertia, and the general feeling that the status of ABC was not a major issue.

How does that assessment look now?

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