After downtown bar owners came under fire for entry policies some critics called discriminatory, Madison city officials plan to host training to address fair entrance rules and maintain safety for patrons.

The training session, set to be headed by several city agencies Feb. 20, is a revised version of previous trainings for bar staff and city officials to help better understand the best and fairest policy for patrons entering establishments.

Alcohol Policy Coordinator Mark Woulf said this will be the first time a training session has been held since the city revised the programming. He said the primary difference with this session will be addressing the diversity of viewpoints on bar entrance policies.

“Instead of being primarily driven by the police department, we’re having a variety of different agencies talk about different things,” Woulf said.

He said the featured agencies include the Madison Police Department, the city attorney’s office, the Madison Fire Department, the Department of Civil Rights and the mayor’s office, with each agency emphasizing different important issues.

For instance, Woulf said MFD will focus on overcrowding issues, while DCR will look at legal parameters and give a presentation on learning about how biases affect how people do their jobs.

Woulf said his department in the mayor’s office will look at strategies for enforcing general safety measures in and around the establishments, as well as touch on the legal parameters surrounding entrance policies.

Woulf also said the session will partner with some bar owners to get the perspective of workers, including employees who work the doors at bars.

“The reason the mayor’s office and other agencies felt they needed to get involved was the spike in violence over the summer that was unusual for the downtown area,” Woulf said.

The issue stems from past grievances, brought up by the Equal Opportunities Commission and other institutions, that requiring bar patrons to present either a driver’s license or a passport discriminated against underrepresented groups.

Members brought up findings that showed a much higher percentage of minority groups being affected by the policy, which caused further contention in city committees.

Ald. Scott Resnick, District 8, said this is an issue that has been discussed since the summer as the city saw more violent incidents happening in and outside of bars.

He said this is a more formalized response to the situation now that they have had time to digest what the legal options are versus the illegal ones.

Resnick said the city regularly has training with bar staff to go over policies and how to handle patrons in situations like fights or extreme intoxication.

Additionally, Resnick said most of the bars have stopped the controversial entrance practices.

“Many bars have realized there is a drawback on these policies, and the mayor’s office works intimately with the bars to work on this issue,” Resnick said.

MPD spokesperson Joel DeSpain said while his department has done training in the past with bar staff about the best policies, the office will not be directly involved in the February training.

Resnick said the issue of bar security is a major one in downtown bars because of their very high turnover.

“Hopefully the results are bars that are both safer environments and have better interactions with their patrons,” Resnick said.