Cops Enlist Volunteer Parents To Help Curb Teen Drinking

By Anna Deem in News on May 29, 2010 6:00PM

To curb teen drinking, northwest suburban Park Ridge has started the Parent Party Patrol program, which teams parents up with police officers to be on call between 9 p.m. and 1 a.m. in search of parties that could possibly involve underage alcohol consumption. Once a call comes over the police radio notifying them of a party in progress, the patrol members will head to the scene, observe police actions, and wait until they are potentially called on to explain procedures to parents or help officers notify parents of the underage drinkers.

Launched by Park Ridge Police Chief Frank Kaminski, the Parent Party Patrol runs through a grant funded by the Maine Community Youth Assistance Foundation, an organization that fights to stop substance abuse among youths. "This is not just a police problem, it's a community problem, and the only way we're going to solve it is to have community members participate," Kaminski said to the Chicago Sun-Times.

"You can connect with parents because you are parents and because you are not the police," Detective Gene Ware told Party Patrol members during a recent orientation. Ware noted that Party Patrol members won't be allowed to enter homes and they won't be involved in arresting anyone.