Windham PD wins $2,000 grant
WINDHAM
12/23/2009

By Emily Parkhurst

The Cumberland County Underage Drinking Task Force awarded the Windham Police Department a $2,000 grant last week to help combat underage drinking throughout the coming year.

''One of the crux of the issues is to give them the tools they need to target the underage drinking parties at home,'' said Assistant Project Director Joanne Morrissey.

Morrissey explained that there is a prevalent myth that teenagers are going to drink anyway, and that parents should encourage them to be safe by taking away their keys and providing a place for them to consume alcohol.

''The truth is only one third of underage drinking deaths are driving related,'' said Morrissey. ''Two-thirds are falls and drownings. And that's just the mortalities. There are also the other horrible things that happen -- the violence, the sexual assault.''

The Task Force mini-grants will allow local law enforcement agencies to ramp up party patrols during high-risk times when teenagers have more idle time or when parents are less vigilant, such as New Year's Eve, graduation, and school vacations. Morrissey said sometimes parents don't realize their child has a problem until the police make them aware. She cited the 2008 Maine Youth Drug and Alcohol Use Survey that asked parents whether they believed their children were experimenting with alcohol. Only four percent said yes. However, when the children were surveyed, 28 percent reported having experimented with or used alcohol. According to the same survey, students are four times more likely to drink if they don't think they will be caught by police than students who do think they will be caught. In addition, students who think that alcohol is easy to obtain are four times as likely to have had alcohol in the past 30 days as students who think it is difficult to obtain.

''That's where law enforcement can step in and make parents aware. It offers one more opportunity to get little Johnny the help he needs. Parents can't be in all places at all times,'' Morrissey said.

Each of the nine police departments that successfully applied for the grant was awarded the funding, which is distributed by the task force annually.

''It's just one more way we can help,'' said Morrissey.