The Amherst Police Department was awarded $10,000 in grant funding as part of the 2010 Underage Alcohol Enforcement Grant Program from the Executive Office of Public Safety and Security (EOPSS). This program provides overtime funds for enforcement of underage alcohol laws through activities such as compliance checks, reverse stings, party patrols, surveillance patrols, and Cops in Shops. The EOPSS awarded 31 of these grants totaling over $310,000.The Amherst Police Department intends to use this funding to assign extra patrols on Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights through the fall to enforce the open container of alcohol bylaw and underage drinking laws. During fiscal year 2009, Amherst Police Officers charged 355 persons with being minors in possession of alcohol. The Amherst Police Department has found that strict enforcement of liquor law violations has greatly increased the quality of living for those who reside in the center business district and those in the vicinity of the University of Massachusetts.
For more information on these increased enforcement efforts, please contact Lieutenant Robert J. O’Connor at (413) 259-3208.
According to the Fatality Reporting Analysis System (FARS) and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), motor vehicle crashes are the leading cause of death among young drivers between the ages of 15 and 20. Additionally, youths 15 to 20 years of age represented 9 percent of the U.S. population in 2007 and 6 percent of the licensed drivers; however, 19 percent of the fatalities in the United States in 2007 were related to young-driver crashes.
For more information on impaired driving, go the EOPPS website.
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