This 2016 staff file photo shows Sky Zoo nightclub at 5709 Lee Highway in Chattanooga, Tenn. The Chattanooga beer board went off the beaten path Thursday when it gave a two-week beer sales suspension to Sky Zoo at 5709 Lee Highway after Chattanooga police set out to show a “pattern” of drunk drivers leaving the Brainerd nightclub.
It’s one of the few times the beer board – which typically cites bars, restaurants and stores for serving underage drinkers – has punished a business for customers driving under the influence.
“Our job is to reduce crashes and save lives,” said Lt. Austin Garrett, the police department’s Tactical and Traffic Operations Commander who initiated a new emphasis on having patrol officers try to figure out where DUI offenders had been drinking.
Then, the name of the bar or restaurant to blame gets forwarded to police Officer John Collins, who’s assigned to the beer board. He works with Assistant City Attorney Keith Reisman to look for a pattern of DUIs.
Police spent almost three hours Thursday building their case against Sky Zoo – over the objections of the nightclub’s Chattanooga attorney, Doug Cox, who called the meeting “a circus.”