I get the idea of the "party patrol" but what are the consequences for the kids? Without consequences the whole thing is meaningless! Are the local judges supporting the mission of the patrol? Which, by the way, is what? Busting kids? Creating an "us against them" mentality? If this was running with an educational component, I'd feel better about it. I know students think they are invicible, I remember... but they need to be reminded that they aren't.

How dare these young adults drink alcohol. Don't they know at 17 and 18 they are only allowed to drive tanks and shoot guns in foreign wars, not drink beers with friends at home. Prohibition has never worked no matter how many cops you have running around the woods handing out tickets. Maybe we should try promoting responsible drinking instead of this absurd policy of prohibition.

Thirty underage teens. How dumb, giving the publicity surounding the social host law can this woman and the other adults be?

Oh come on let the kids have fun. We all did it.

Barrington. Tragedy. NK parents wake up, it does happen in your town and you are taking the COPS program away from the schools

This "party patrol" seems to me to be completely out of bounds on the part of the police. What probable evidence do they have before going into someone's house on suspicion of underage drinking? Unless there's a keg on the front lawn with a bunch of kids in NKHS sweatshirts, it seems that they are basing their busts on lots of cars in the driveway. I think that the $15,000 that was spent sending these policemen out for four hours a night can be put to much better use than searching out a good old time where it's much more likely that the kids will be practicing safe drinking habits - not forced to sneak it somewhere else and then get behind the wheel. Smarten up, cops.

Coming from the UK (not necessarily a good reference by any stretch of the imagination these days), where the drinking age is 18, I still feel we are a little out of perspective here. I wish I could have learnt to drive at 15! Such wonderful responsibility to be given.....what, like a grown up?.....and then at 18 treated like a kid. JP and the others have it right, don't fight these young men, work with them.

Kudos to N. Kingstown!!! 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!!

maybe they should call it the "Party Pooper Patrol"...

"Oh come on let the kids have fun. We all did it."

Yeah we all did it and we all knew we were screwed if we got caught. That kept us from doing as much as we could have and saved a lot of lives. They got caught, others will think twice. Lives will be saved, you moron.

JP....how about this. As soon as they have to fight a war, drive a tank, and shoot guns in a foreign war they can drink at that age. If not obey the law, if you don't like the law then try and change it. Such a pathetic argument to make....you can go deliver the news to the kids parents killed by teen drinking....cause it really is no big deal. A fture liberal democrat in the making.

No not everybody did it some people do have what we call a mind of our own. Yes there does need to be consequences for the kids involved also. Make them go to the morgue and view what can happen to people that drink and drive and the innocent people that they hurt.Lose thier drivers liscense for a certain amount of time depending on the level of drinking.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.

John's right. Hell, back in 2001 we were all smoking and drinking at keg parties in good ol Cranston. And guess what, we walked to and fro where ever we went. It definitely got hairy once we started driving and got lazy to walk home...bad decisions.

However John, these kids in NK and Barrington live farther apart from each other than in Cranston, meaning they have to drive. Especially in poorly lit country roads at night, not Cranston. How many times have you truthfully driven drunk John? Probably more than once.

And the comment by JP is just priceless. Shows how ingnorant our country really is toward gun laws.

Up with hope, down with party patrols!

Have you ever seen a 17-year-old drive when sober? Picture how he drives when he's been drinking. How do you think these kids got to these parties? They're all DRIVING. North Kingstown is a 40-square-mile town. They might have to drive 7 or 8 miles just to get home, not to mention how much fun it is to drive around when high. Meanwhile your spouse, sister, best friend, etc. is on the road just waiting to be struck by them. So let's hear it for the party patrol. And these kids are not paying much attention to the law that requires new drivers to only drive with one unrelated person in the car for their first year. In the past week, two different new drivers have offered to give my 15-year-old and her friends a ride somewhere. My husband and I had to point out to them that they weren't even legally able to do that! Duh!

yeah, I don't think I can tell you one person, that I know of, who has ever followed that law.

It's just smoke and mirrors, just like the party patrols, who still aren't stopping anybody from drinking underage, and/or driving.

Has the US ever won a battle in the war on drugs? maybe, at the Mexican border stopping trafficking. Will the US win the war the way their model is built? NO, never.

Kids are going to drink lets teach them to do it responsably and in a safe enviornment isn't that whats most important keeping them safe and not having the cops flush them out on to the road. we all know that most of them scattered when the cops came and drove off drunk. thats somthing to think about. In the good old days we all passed out at our friends house no driving home drunk!!!!

MADER MOTHER

M OTHERS
A GAENST
D RUNK DRIVERS FOR
E DUCATION AND
R EFORM
M ANDATE
O UR
T EENS
H ELP
E DUCATE
R ESPOSABILITY

Its time we took our heads out of the sand
Our teens are going to experiment with alcohol
Let’s teach them to be responsible
Much like our graduated licensing program
I advocate for a graduated drinking age
18 –21 year olds can drink at home under parental supervision
To teach them to be responsible so they our not unleashed into the world responsibility free at 21,
After all they can live on there own, die for our country, and go to jail at 18. lets be realistic!!!!!!!

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 asuming that because there are lots of cars, there 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? i know plenty of party goers that would rather spend the night at the host's house then drive home while intoxicated. there are kids who drive to a party with 5 or 6 kids in the car. theyre could be only 3 cars in a driveway and still have 20 kids! smarten up police. you're screwing up the beauty of discovering freedom as a teenager. if kids choose to abuse it, they will suffer in the long run anyway...

Everyone, here is an idea to think about; what exactly is all this money for the "party pooper patrol" being used for. Cops are patroling the street late at night, just like they are supposed to be doing. What exactly is this large grant of money being used for? I may be speaking purely of ignorance, and if so, someone can put me in my place (my feelings wont get hurt). The NKPD should issue a document stating what exactly all this money is being used for.

I believe this whole party patrol concept is just another example on how the general mass of the American population decides to make actions after a significant event occurs (nation wide:9/11-Department of Homeland Security. State Wide: Drunk Driving tragedies-NK party patrol). The authority figures of RI just have to come to the realization that prevention of these activites 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 underaged drinking. Parties will always occur, whether the party patrol rolls up upon them or not.