A proposal to scan the driver licenses of bar patrons and keep it on file in a state law enforcement database is a good start, says Senate President Michael Waddoups, but he wants to see the program go further.

Waddoups, R-Taylorsville, says he wants to see the database idea start with private clubs, but extend to restaurants that serve diners beer and liquor.

That would greatly expand the scope of the data collection and create a new requirement for restaurants, which are not required to have people sign up as members in order to serve beer and liquor. There are fewer than 400 clubs and taverns and nearly 1,100 restaurants licensed to serve alcohol.

Bar owners pitched the idea of doing away with Utah's unique requirement that all patrons be members of a private club, replacing it with the use of electronically scannable driver licenses to prevent underage drinking.

Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr., who wants to eliminate Utah's private club laws to make the state more tourist-friendly, is amenable to the idea.

But the governor and bar owners have expressed concern toward a bill that Sen. John Valentine, R-Orem, is crafting. He would store the information in a central database that law enforcement could access for accident investigations or in the event of a traffic stop.

"In a restaurant, if they're serving alcohol, the person ordering the alcohol should show the ID," said Waddoups, who was receiving a demonstration of the license scanners after the Legislature's budget meeting Friday. "At some point, the restaurant would feed [the information] into the central database."

That way, he said, if the restaurant patron left the restaurant and went to a bar, the bartender could know the customer may have already been drinking and might need to be watched more closely.

Tom Guinney, a partner in the Gastronomy family of restaurants which includes Café Pierpont and The New Yorker, said the mandatory scanning of restaurant patrons' licenses to add it to a central database would be "an absolute customer relations fiasco."

"It's inconceivable that that kind of legislation could be passed for public restaurants, or for private clubs, for that matter," he said.

He said the electronic scanners can be a tool for weeding out underage drinkers in private clubs, but that is not a serious problem for restaurants. And he said business owners -- whether bars or restaurants -- need to have discretion in who they scan, so grandparents aren't being asked to turn over their driver licenses.

Melva Sine, president of the Utah Restaurant Association, said she had not heard of what Waddoups described to The Tribune , and said she wanted to meet with him to discuss it.

Waddoups has already objected to restaurants that he said are becoming too much like bars. He has advocated for requiring restaurants to prepare drinks and store alcohol away from where diners might see it.