FORT COLLINS, Colo. -- Bouncers at a Fort Collins bar aren't just checking IDs for a person's age. They're also looking at the person's home town.

“I've never seen someone look at the city on an ID and deny someone,” said Sarah Graham, a University of Northern Colorado Student.

Graham said she and several friends were turned away at the door of Washington’s Sports Bar and Grill because they live in Greeley, an agricultural community with 76,000 residents just over 30 miles southeast of Fort Collins.

Graham said they immediately started asking questions of the bouncer.

"(He) said they've had problems with Greeley IDs in the past, and I guess that was a new policy they adopted," Graham told 7NEWS reporter Lane Lyon.

Other patrons said the establishment, popular with students attending Colorado State University, was not letting people in from Greeley and neigbhoring Evans because they have been having gang problems, according to the Fort Collins Now.

Jason Jackson told the newspaper that the bouncer “could tell we weren’t gangsters, but if he made an exception for us, he’d have to make one for everyone.”

Jackson said it didn't feel right to be discriminated against based on where he lives.

“This limited policy was very recently enacted and is only in effect on Saturday nights from 9 p.m. until close to protect the patrons and staff of Washington’s Sports Bar and Grill,” said Shane Belcher, the bar owner, in a statement sent to 7NEWS.

“Given the best advice that we had at the time we instituted this policy to help relieve a very real and dangerous problem concerning the safety of our establishment,” Belcher said.

The statement did describe the policy in detail.

Catherine Hazouri, Executive Director of the ACLU in Denver, said the policy “makes no sense to me.”

“If someone is fighting I can understand,” Hazouri told 7NEWS, after just learning of the complaints. “(But) they are a place of public accommodation.”

Hazouri explained she wasn’t certain upset patrons would have much legal recourse since simply being a resident of Greeley is not considered a protected class.

A spokeswoman for the Fort Collins police said officers have received nearly twice the number of disturbances at the bar, compared to the same time period last year.

She added refusing out-of-town customers is not uncommon. The establishment is private property and “(they) can select who they want to serve or not,” Rita Davis told 7NEWS.

She noted no laws appeared to be broken with the policy.

Brad Ianacone, a manager and bartender at Washington’s, told the newspaper because the bar is a private establishment, it reserves the right to deny service to anyone. Although he did not admit that the bar turns away every person who has a Greeley or Evans identification, he said management has noticed that most of the fights at the bar involve out-of-towners from Greeley, Evans and also Cheyenne. Many of the problems have been gang-related, he added.

"I think it's a pretty bad situation they way they judge people," said Josh, another patron who carries a Greeley identification, and who asked his last name not be used.

Josh questioned why he was initially allowed in the bar but other people in his group were not.

Belcher explained through his statement, “It has come to our attention due to a small number of complaints to the media, that our policy might have been unduly restrictive and we are in the process of reevaluating the policy at this time.”

Too late for Josh and Graham, who said they don’t plan to return to Washington’s.

“I don’t think you can lump a group of people say, ‘You’re from Greeley, you can’t come in,’“ Graham said. “You don't know me, I'm an education major, I would never do harm to you."