Westbrook is continuing the fight against underage drinking by establishing an underage drinking hotline and continuing special details by police.
Community groups around the state are organizing meetings on ways to prevent underage drinking. In Westbrook, there have been public meetings in April, with another meeting scheduled for Thursday, June 15.
The June 15 meeting will focus on two priority areas, according to School Health Coordinator Sandy Hale. She said those areas are “parent education around underage drinking and impacting local retailers and their alcohol marketing.”
Hale said the meeting will include an educational video distributed by the Maine Christian Temperance League and small groups working on priority projects. Hale said this meeting will probably be the last of the summer.
Hale said the community group and the police have established an anonymous underage drinking tip hotline that concerned residents can use to report knowledge of underage drinking. The number of the hotline is 854-0644, ext. 7.
Police are taking part in the forums and also doing some things of their own. Since receiving a grant of $5,000 from the state last summer, police have undergone special training and have been working overtime hours on a variety of details directed towards preventing underage drinking and underage access to alcohol.
A typical detail involves one plainclothes officer and one uniformed officer driving an unmarked car, patrolling known spots where minors gather and drink. The plainclothes officer attempts to get close to the activity and the uniformed officer “provides instant, recognizable identification” if law enforcement action is necessary, according to Capt. Tom Roth.
According to Roth, one of the more successful details has been groups of eight or nine police officers locating and breaking up parties where alcohol is being provided to underage drinkers. In March, officers broke up a high school house party and issued about 20 summonses to kids drinking alcohol.
Westbrook police have recently received additional funding that Roth hopes will keep the program going into next year. He wants to keep the program going indefinitely. The state gave Westbrook another $5,000, and the county $4,000.
“That’ll keep us going for a while,” said Roth.
Police and school officials as well have asked adults who witness or know anything about underage drinking to please report it to the hotline. The overall message of this community effort is that everyone should bring underage drinking more to their awareness and take action where they can. According to many involved in the effort, preventing underage drinking is a shared problem as opposed to a police problem, an educator problem or a parent problem alone.
The meeting will be held on June 15 at 6:30 p.m. in the conference room of the Public Safety Building. If the public has any questions about the meeting, they can contact Hale at 854-0820.
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