'START' vows to stop teen alcohol abuse
Toolbox
By Daphne Larkin Times Argus Staff - Published: April 30, 2007
BARRE — It's no longer just a battle of wits, but also one of technology.
As tech-savvy teenagers use e-mail, Web sites and text messaging to advertise and move around the location of underage drinking parties, local law enforcement officers are also turning to technology, using thermal imaging and night-vision goggles in their efforts to locate stray party-goers when they crash an underage drinking bash.
"We're safety-driven," said Martin Prevost, an investigator for the Vermont Department of Liquor Control and a team leader for the Washington County chapter of START (an acronym for Stop Teen Alcohol Risk Team).
When police show up at a party where underage youths are drinking, the response from party-goers can be panic. That's why police try very hard to locate everyone who may have been drinking to try to prevent kids from fleeing into the woods in cold weather or getting behind the wheel.
At a recent party START responded to, officers located a youth passed out next to a stream. It is dangerous situations like these that START strives to prevent and why START was formed in 1988. "(Underage drinking) is a violation of the law, and we perceive it like that," said Vermont State Police Lieutenant John Imburgio, who is the Middlesex barracks commander and a Washington County START team leader.
On Friday morning, three of the four Washington County START team leaders met at The Times Argus to discuss their work and dedication to curtailing underage drinking parties, talking about a list of strategies they are constantly revising. Besides Prevost and Imburgio, Montpelier Police Sergeant Anthony Facos, who is also a START team leader, spoke about the efforts to prevent teen drinking. (Sgt, Brett Meyer of the Washington County Sheriffs Dept. is the fourth team leader.)
Underage drinking parties have changed; the fact that they happen hasn't, they said.
Big keg parties aren't as frequent; smaller parties and parties that move around or get planned for out of town or even out of the county are the norm, START team members said.
Imburgio, Prevost and Facos are all seasoned law enforcement officials who are passionate about keeping teens safe.
"We're building a reputation that if you're having a party, you're probably going to see us," Prevost said.
In Washington County, the START team includes community agencies such as Central Vermont New Directions, an agency dedicated to helping kids make good choices; the state's attorney office; the court diversion program and every police department in the county. Each county in the state has a federally funded START team.
The START team can be activated anytime, anywhere. Officers will even get called out from home.
Team members said each underage drinking party police find out about is investigated, and the adults responsible for providing the space — whether they are aware of the party or not — and the alcohol can be charged criminally or civilly.
The team prefers to stop an underage drinking party before it occurs.
"Frankly, I think the officers would prefer not to be responding to underage drinking parties," Imburgio said.
The team uses commonsense approaches and sometimes employs radical methods — like towing illegally parked cars of kids who weren't drinking — to get their message across.
"It's important for people to know we will be persistent," Imburgio said.When parents are contacted ahead of time by the team they often appreciate finding out that their teen was planning a party, according to Imburgio.
Teens who are found to be drinking are referred to court diversion. Washington County Court Diversion provides the Teen Alcohol Safety Program to any teen charged with a first offense possession of a malt beverage, a change from eight years ago when every underage drinking offense was processed through the criminal courts. The program includes screening to detect alcoholism and can impose counseling at the teen's expense and community service. It also includes court fees.
"If they satisfactorily complete the requirements laid out by diversion (that are individual, based on screening) they have a clean slate," said Montpelier Police Sergeant Facos.
"Not that diversion is pleasant," Prevost said. "But you get a piece of paper and you're going home," he said of the process of dealing with underage drinking at parties. When kids see their friends are not getting hauled off in handcuffs, they tend to come out of the woods, he said.
If officers hear about a planned underage drinking party they will reach out to landowners or parents, whatever adults may be responsible for the location of the party, and educate them about their legal liability.
The three team leaders don't know how many parties they have prohibited by their proactive presence, and there's no way to calculate how many lives they have saved and teenagers they have protected; they also have no illusions that kids are going to stop trying to have drinking parties.
"We'll miss some parties, we understand we will," Imburgio said.
With prom season and graduations ahead, underage alcohol consumption is a major concern in the community, but underage drinking isn't seasonal.
Last Thursday, a school-sponsored dialogue was held at Montpelier High School, a school that is coping with a couple of recent incidents: an overnight trip to New York City that included teens drinking alcohol and smoking pot, and an exchange program with a New Jersey school that has been halted because Montpelier students took their guests to a drinking party and got caught.
"Part of the whole premise behind START is community prevention and obviously schools play a really strong role," Facos said.
Just last Friday, they said, a party in Northfield was quashed by a START team saturation of police vehicles driving the loop around the house where the party was planned.
Prevost told of a major drinking bash, including 18 kegs and a band, that was planned for last week in Addison County.
The START team there got wind of the planned bash and stopped it before it began by convincing the host-to-be that the $1,000 he'd already spent was worth forfeiting when he considered the charges he could incur from selling alcohol from the kegs. Other charges could also have included furnishing alcohol to minors, and liability for any property damage, subsequent vehicle accidents resulting from DUI and sexual and aggravated assaults.
Studies show a correlation between alcohol and sexual abuse.
"Alcohol impairs judgment. In the body of a teenager, alcohol heightens emotions, reduces inhibitions, and may lead to other drug use. One bad decision from an impaired teen may be fatal and devastating to the family," according to the Web site of the Vermont Department of Liquor.
Although the underage drinking ethic hasn't changed, as more parents become educated about the hazards of underage drinking, their attitudes seem to be changing.
"I don't get yelled at or hung-up on anymore by parents I call in the middle of the night," Prevost said.
Contact Daphne Larkin at (802) 479-0191 ext.1171 or daphne.larkin@timesargus.com .
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