Cate's+Essay

Brennan December 09, 2008 Senior Seminar: Position Essay Eliminating “Party Patrol” In early May 2008 North Kingstown Police put a new spin on curbing the underage drinking problem in the town. Using a $15,000 grant from the Working Together for Wellness Task Force, North Kingstown has created a so-called “Party Patrol” which consists of two officers in a car carrying out 8 p.m. to midnight patrols. Although I am a resident of Jamestown, I attend North Kingstown High School, and have many friends in the area. From what my peers and I have seen throughout the past year, the patrol is allowed to: question a group of teenagers whether they are appear suspicious or not, get the names and addresses of the teenagers, use flashlights to look in their cars, approach parties solely because there are a number of cars outside the residence, whether it is a suspected teenage party or not, approach parties because they got a phone call, and carry out many other “investigations”. Underage drinking has taken center stage in Rhode Island after a series of deaths and accidents over the past years, particularly in the nearby town of Barrington. In 2007, the local NK task force won a $450,000 federal grant to reduce teen drinking. The grant was issued because of the high number of DUI arrests in town, and because students on a school survey said they drank. The task force used some of the money to pay for a police “party patrol.” Since late November 2008, the patrol has broken up twenty illegal drinking parties. In the last nine months, the police have arrested more than 130 juveniles, many of them on drug or alcohol-related charges, and two adults have been charged with supplying alcohol to teens, reports Detective Jason Clark. There no statistics, however, comparing the number of recent underage-drinking-related deaths to those before the Party Patrol came into action. Since it was created, the patrol has sparked much controversy in the town of North Kingstown, as well as throughout other towns in RI, and there are many different viewpoints on the subject. “ Kudos to North Kingstown!!!” says “Sandy”, an anonymous commenter regarding the subject on Projo.com. “Finally another town joins Barrington in the battle against underage drinking. Just this weekend alone there have been 2 fatal crashes in Attleboro and Coventry. Hopefully other communities will follow suit...our kids are just too precious!!”    “Mary” on Projo.com agrees. “Make them (the teenagers involved) go to the morgue and view what can happen to people that drink and drive and the innocent people that they hurt. Kids as well as adults who condone underage drinking need to know that there are severe consequences; not only for them but innocent people as well.” Many parents in the town feel this way, and applaud the patrol for cracking down on teenagers. However, many feel the patrol is a waste of time. A concerned parent on Projo.com states: “The authority figures of RI just have to come to the realization that prevention of these activities will seldom happen. Teenage rebellion is inevitable, and that has been shown throughout the history of our country. Wasting state money for the party patrol, in my opinion, is a mere attempt to please a select group of parents, and to make RI citizens think that NK is demolishing the current and inevitable concept of under aged drinking. Parties will always occur, whether the party patrol rolls up upon them or not.” Another anonymous poster agrees. How will having police driving around looking for parties help the situation at all? Kids are still going to drink. Knowing that the police are more on the lookout will only make them try to do things more discretely. Sure, the NKPP will bust a few parties, but the more it happens, the more secretly kids will be having their get-togethers. this is just setting kids up to learn how to avoid the law **even more** than they already are with the whole underage drinking and abusing of illegal substances. And assuming that because there are lots of cars, there must be a party is just stupid. I know students who get together just to "chill". How do they know its not a bunch of old women getting together for a fun night of bingo? Sarah Pease, who attends North Kingstown High School, has had a personal encounter with the patrol, and agrees that it was a violating and un-productive experience. “Sometime in early October”, she starts, “my two friends and I had just come back from dinner in Newport and met our other two friends on a private beach in NK to sit and talk. We saw a car approach, and we thought nothing of it. Two police officers got out of the car, and started looking around the beach shining flashlights around looking for something. My friends and I concluded that it was the party patrol, since they drive around in an undercover cop car. They didn’t even notice us sitting there until we started laughing and talking. They shined flashlights in all of our cars and came over to us to take down all of our names and addresses and look at our IDs. We weren’t worried because we were doing nothing wrong, but they were still interrogating us. When one of my friends asked why they had to take down his name one of the officers replied in a rude tone “Because then if anything is vandalized in this area or any houses are egged, we’ll know who to call.” They left soon after that, and then we decided to leave, because our night had been ruined. And it was only around 9:30.” Erin Brennan, who attends the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, has been in a situation of the same nature. She re-accounts her story: “When I attended the High School last year, the party patrol was created about a month before I graduated in June 2008. I always thought the idea was ridiculous, but I never thought much of it until I actually experienced them in action. I was just getting out of my car on a bright summer evening, around 8pm to attend my friend’s graduation party. I was taking a jug of lemonade out of my car to bring to the party, and about to cross the street to go into the backyard, when a car pulled up right in front of me. Inside was an officer, who questioned what I was doing and what was in the jug. When I showed him that it clearly was just lemonade, he pulled into my friend’s driveway and proceeded to go into the backyard. Many adults were present and were drinking, but none of the teenagers were. My friend’s father, the host of the party was soon rudely questioned, and informed the officer that the party was indeed safe. The cop left, and after about ten minutes, so did I and many of my peers. The atmosphere of the party was ruined, and many of us felt guilty and violated for doing nothing wrong. It was a supervised graduation party for God’s sake!” After much research and experience with the subject, I believe that the party patrol is indeed a waste of time, money and resources. I believe that it in no way will help to curb teen drinking. And finally, I believe it cause kids to be even more sneaky and dangerous with their drinking. The two accounts previously told were from my own sister, and my best friend, who I was with the night she was interrogated on the beach, when I too, felt violated. The 15,000 dollars used to fund the patrol could go to much more useful resources, such as building a North Kingstown Teen Center, which would give teens something to do, and could possibly curb teen drinking in a more positive manner. The idea of a teen center has worked very effectively in Jamestown, where there is no Party patrol. The two officers on the patrol are wasting time and money that could be used for better causes on the force. When two parties were broken up in late May 2008, there were some sixty teenagers, who were charged with nothing! After the two officers attended the first party, they went back to the station to fill out paperwork regarding the party, and were not even out on patrol at the time of the second party, and received the information through a phone tip! I even have a few friends who were at the parties, who fled into the woods to avoid the cops, and were so scared that they resorted to driving home intoxicated. I also have many anonymous personal accounts of kids who want to avoid the party patrol, and will go to other towns to party, or will throw parties in remote and dangerous places in the woods, and even to places so obscure as their fathers warehouse! Kids have already found their way around the not even year-old patrol. Teens will pile as many others in their cars as they can in order to create the illusion that there is no party going on. I also have heard of instances where kids heard the police were coming, so they jumped in their cars and drove home intoxicated, whereas if there were no police, they would have slept over at their current location, and would not have resorted to drunk driving. If the party patrol was to be eliminated, the funds provided could be put to better use. The local officers could go back to their usual duties of keeping North Kingstown safe without making teenagers feel violated. Yes, teens would still drink, but perhaps in a manner that was safer than them watching their backs, ready to jump in their cars, or flee into the woods at the first sign of a flashing light. Drunk driving accidents are indeed tragic, but the party patrol by no means eliminates them. I encourage others to look at the situation as a whole, and to consider eliminating the patrol altogether to create a more wholesome, safe, and positive North Kingstown. Works Cited McKinney, Michael P. "New N. Kingstown 'party patrol' uncovers 2 gatherings." __Projo.com__. 19 May 2008.The Providence Journal.9 Dec. 2008 . Davis, Paul. "North Kingstown mother who lost son in crash is fighting teen drinking." __Projo.com__. 21 Nov. 2008.The Providence Journal.9 Dec. 2008 . Armental, Maria. "Woman charged after party." __Projo.com__. 20 May 2008.The Providence Journal.9 Dec. 2008 .