Due to what some see as an excessive population of problem drinkers in Madison, city officials and the Alcohol License Review Committee are working on an “alcohol ban list,” banning a handful of individuals with obvious alcohol problems from purchasing alcoholic beverages.

Joel Plant, assistant to Mayor Dave Cieslewicz, said the list would utilize an existing Wisconsin statue that prohibits liquor stores from selling alcohol to a “known habitual drunkard.”

The problem with the statute is there is no official definition of a “known habitual drunkard,” according to Plant.

He added the city now needs to decide what a “habitual drunkard” is.

Plant said individuals would most likely be evaluated through records of police contacts, number of arrests and trips to detox.

Plant added the purpose of the ban would be more than just withholding drinks from alcoholics.

“From a human component, it’s not helping them in any way in terms of their obvious addiction to alcohol,” Plant said. “A very important piece of this is if we can make sure that we can plug these individuals into services.”

Capt. Joe Balles of the Madison Police Department said police reports from last year show approximately seven people were taken to detox more than 20 times each. Over the course of 10 months in 2008, MPD transported people to detox more than 1,700 times.

Balles said the proposed ban focuses on liquor stores because he said people are generally not incapacitated at bars.

“They’re going into Riley’s or University Liquor and buying their cheap liquor, and then we’re finding them on a bench on State Street, passed out in a fraternity house front yard, or wherever,” Balles said.

He added police reports have shown a “chronic alcoholic population in the downtown area,” and he thinks city officials have a moral obligation to uphold the quality of life in Madison.

“What we found by looking at the data is there’s this kind of real identifiable hardcore group of individuals that fit the criteria,” Balles said.

According to both Plant and Balles, the list of “known habitual drunkards” would likely contain between 12 and 20 names.

The list would be accessible to all licensed liquor establishments, and it would be up to the employees to not serve the people on the list.

“When you talk about banning alcohol, if you’ve got seven people that in a 10 month period you’ve taken to detox 20 or more times … shouldn’t we be making some effort to try to ban the sale of alcohol to these guys?” Balles said.

Plant said there have not been any recent bans in Madison similar to the proposed ban, adding Green Bay has successfully used an “alcohol ban list” for about a decade.

The proposed ban will be brought to the City Council for debate in the next couple of months.