A new anonymous text-a-tip line is aimed at reducing underage drinking in the East Bay.

The program exists in Bristol, Warren and East Providence, and has yielded more than a thousand tips. The program is not offered in Barrington. 

Why? According to an East Bay Regional Coalition official, Barrington’s underage drinking rate was too low to qualify the community for the grant that supports the text-a-tip line. 

Steven Eiland, the Partnerships for Success Coordinator at East Bay Regional Coalition, wrote in an email to the Barrington Times that the tip lines were paid for with an underage drinking prevention grant called Partnerships for Success 2018, and that the grant was awarded to communities that were surveyed as “high need” for underage drinking prevention.

“Essentially, not enough kids were drinking in Barrington to justify the grant for underage drinking to be awarded compared to neighboring communities,” Eiland wrote. 

The grant relied upon data gathered in a Rhode Island Student Survey, wrote Denise Alves, the Regional Prevention Co-Director for the East Bay Regional Coalition. The state chose the top 20 communities that exhibited the greatest need, according to the survey.

“We were not in the top 20,” Alves wrote in an email, referring to Barrington. “It’s not that Barrington wasn’t in need, it’s that we weren’t in the top 20.”

The East Bay Regional Coalition shared a press release about the program recently. It stated that the from the launch of the program in April 2022, nearly 1,200 tips were collected with 14 percent being directly related to alcohol or other substances — one tip reportedly led to the identification of someone who would receive orders via text message from youth to sell alcohol to them; other tips helped police respond to drug reports. 

“Additional tips led to an intervention in a suicide threat, the removal of a “ghost” gun, traffic reports regarding DUIs, and noise complaints which often pointed to locations where underage drinking occurred,” stated the press release. 

Since April 2022, an additional 500 tips were collected ranging from vapes being sold to minors to tips on the location of suspects with active warrants out for their arrest. The tips were specific to Warren, Bristol and East Providence. 

Barrington has experienced underage drinking-related issues in the past. Last month, Barrington Police responded to a noise complaint and discovered an underage drinking party. Police charged one teenager with possession of alcoholic beverage by underage person-first offense.

On Oct. 29, 2022, Barrington Police received an anonymous phone call that about 40 or 50 teenagers were partying deep in the woods behind the Barrington Post Office. Police responded and discovered dozens of teenagers and a large amount of alcohol. Police were able to detain nine teens. 

At the time, Barrington Police Chief Michael Correia said: “It’s a concern. It reinforces to me, as the police chief, that we still need to be vigilant. It’s not just a problem in this town, but there’s a tragic history in this town, and the police department has to be vigilant.”