Cops: Fake ID use up nearly 400 percent at Naperville bars - KMSP-TV

West suburban Naperville police and three local and state agencies have teamed up to battle a 360 percent increase in the use of phony identification by teenagers and young adults trying to gain admission into the city's bars and nightclubs.

Police during the 14-week period of Oct. 1, 2011 through Jan. 7, 2012 issued five tickets to young people for misrepresentation of age by a minor.

For the same period during 2012-13, 23 such citations were issued, a 360 percent increase, police Cmdr. Brian Cunningham said Monday in a prepared statement. "This period of time includes the college winter break," he said.

Only 25 such tickets were issued during all of 2011, Cunningham said. That number rose to 43 during the 2012 calendar year, an increase of 72 percent, he said.

"In the past year, Naperville and the surrounding communities have seen an influx of sophisticated false identification," Cunningham said. "This new wave of counterfeit identification is easily purchased over the Internet from overseas companies."

Police and members of the Naperville Liquor Commission, the Downtown Naperville Restaurant Association and Illinois Secretary of State police in October "began an initiative to combat underage drinking and the use of false identification," Cunningham said. "The initiative involved increased training and enforcement in the downtown."

"We recognize the persons on the front line of this effort are the employees of the downtown restaurants, and we would like to thank them for their efforts in curbing underage drinking," Cunningham said.

The use of fictitious or fraudulent identification, or identification belonging to someone else, "can lead to a suspension or revocation of driving privileges (and) fines from $2,500 to $25,000, as well as jail time," Cunningham said.