Patchogue Village is the emblem of what a thriving city center aspires to achieve, and this includes a plethora of lively restaurants, bars and entertainment venues open until late at night, where law-abiding citizens are invited to come, relax. after work or for a respite from the responsibilities of everyday life, to socialize and socialize with your community, while supporting local businesses. However, as we all know, there will always be a small fraction of customers who have bad intentions or who take their spree too far, causing extreme intoxication and all the chaos that comes with that state in a public forum.
Gone are the days when all that a venue had at its disposal to fight bad actors and mob fomenters was the security staff at the door manually checking identity papers and keeping an eye, in a physical book, on those that I am persona non grata. But now, in the 21st century, there are high-tech identity verification systems, such as Patronscan, available for anyone who wants to keep Patchogue fun, safe, and inviting.
One of the early adopters of Patronscan, and an avid exponent of its core-wide implementation of Patchogue, is Marianthy Katsiafas, manager of That Meetball Place. He recently gave a compelling presentation extolling Patronscan’s merits at the village restaurant committee meeting. Patchogue’s first facility to receive Patronscan was The Cliffton, and after a few months of use, owner Brian Neal approached Katsiafas to inform her of its benefits and how they would be compounded exponentially with increased adoption by more companies. in the community.
“It works best when multiple people are communicating together, so I did my research and brought an entire presentation to our restaurant committee meeting,” said Katsiafas. “After we got it; we had it for a few months and I got up in front of all the restaurateurs and gave a presentation. “
What made the presentation particularly touching and persuasive is that Katsiafas did not make this presentation only from the perspective of a general manager; He also strongly believes in this cause as a resident of Patchogue who has worked in the village for 13 years.
“As a resident, you know, you want your hometown and where you live to be safe … I realized it’s not a bad thing for all of us to be together and help control our village,” he continued, ” We owe it to our community and to all commercial activities open to nightlife; we have many responsibilities to ensure the safety of our guests and the safety of the village “.
Patronscan is a powerful force in this endeavor. Any venue will be able to take any I.D. and the foolproof software will be able to report fake IDs, spot underage customers, and target troublemakers. This national system has been available since 2005 and has since been widely used in several cities and towns across the country. Since all venues serving alcohol are already required to verify that their customers are of legal drinking age, Patronscan takes the guesswork out and the burden of security personnel out by simultaneously creating a searchable database of customers, as well as providing a means to report lawbreakers and troublemakers.
The effects of Patronscan are both preventive and proactive, as well as reactive, allowing businesses to act on offense and defense in the fight against crime. “Anyone who breaks shop windows shouldn’t go into any Patchogue bars, and I think this is a good way to dissuade people from committing crimes,” said Katsiafas.
This ethos extends to more than property damage, as in the extreme case of someone inflicting physical harm.
“If you start a fight in a bar, chances are you’re the kind of person who can start a fight in another bar, so if everyone has the software, make every venue safe, but now you are also dissuading people because of how a friend can’t get in and why he has 10 friends. If he started a fight a month ago, those nine friends will now be dissuaded from starting a fight because they won’t be able to get in too, “Katsiafas said, pointing out. cumulative effect and exponential benefits of large-scale implementation of Patronscan.
“You can use your discretion to let someone in. It somehow puts a warning to them that this happened in this other bar: this person started a fight or caused someone physical harm or did something,” he said. added Orlando Borja, head of security at that Meetball post.
Flags detected by Patronscan have varying degrees of severity.
“The venue chooses whether the flag is public or private,” said Borja.
Dublin Deck has also implemented Patronscan.
“They say they have turned down a lot of customers because of things that happened,” added Katsiafas, “but this is nationwide.”
This means that if, for example, there are college students living or going to school in the north of the state, or anywhere in the country, if they are banned from bars in another city or state, then they are banned or reported from bars. here.
“If you ban someone, there are so many different levels of positivity they can have for the community, so hopefully the board of directors will give us a grant so we can put these machines in every venue that is open after 11pm in Patchogue. “, has continued.
Katsiafas admitted that at least one nearby restaurant was nervous about putting the software in because he thought it might dissuade people from entering due to privacy concerns. However, he wants to allay the fears surrounding this misconception for both business owners and customers.
“Personal information is scanned and we cannot access it. So if we scan your license and come back a day later, I can only see your photo and know you were here, but I can’t recover any of your personal information. “
Only a subpoena from the police department can retrieve such personal information.
“I think people need to know this because their information is safe,” said Katsiafas, who said he has used this technology at least five times to assist the police department in its investigation since installing it in January 2022.
Last weekend, someone walking down the street broke a window next door to That Meetball Place and the enterprising Katsiafas witnessed this crime, approached the attacker and took a picture, then went to the Patronscan kiosk and was able to match the name of the person who broke the window and subsequently filed a complaint with the carabinieri. Thanks to this shrewd response, the cost of repairing the damage does not fall on the owner.
“Now, hopefully, the person who broke the window will pay,” Katsiafas said.
Tom Ferb, a trustee of Patchogue Village, heard Katsiafas’ speech at the restaurant committee meeting and was eager to participate in this initiative.
“I plan to try to develop a public / private partnership with Patchogue Village, our Business Improvement District, Chamber of Commerce, Restaurant Committee and other interested parties … to get Patronscan deployed in the village of Patchogue, “Ferb said in a letter to the community.
Ferb added this caveat: “The system isn’t cheap, so I’ll be looking at potential government funding options that have supported implementation in some locations.”
Ferb will also investigate the best ways to support the regulation and authorization process for the expansion of this technology. He hopes to set up a committee to take this important initiative forward. If you are interested in supporting this effort or would like more information, please contact Tom Ferb at Tom_Ferb@hotmail.com. For more information on Patronscan, visit patronscan.com.
“Times are changing,” said Katsiafas, “and if we can do our part to contribute, that says a lot about who we are. I’ve worked at Patchogue for 13 years and our sense of community, with all the restaurants and bars, I’ve never heard of a village where everyone helps everyone. “
