The Memorial Day weekend, proms and graduations are the times when more underage drinkers attend parties where alcohol is involved.
On Thursday, 22 agents with the Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission (TABC) trained in Austin to help local police agencies learn how to better break up underage parties.
"When law enforcement typically shows up, it may be one or two officers, one of the first things that happens is the kids scatter and then you're chasing them the rest of the night," said Bill Patterson, with the TABC's Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center.
In the past when local police agencies responded to a 911 call or a complaint about an underage party where alcohol was involved they would call on the TABC. Agents are now trying to change their focus from criminal enforcement to administrative cases.
"That's one of the things we're trying to move away from is that they're trained and feel comfortable handling it by themselves and letting us handle the investigation that comes afterwards, especially if somebody has been hurt to find out where they got the alcohol," said Carolyn Beck with the TABC.
The training for the TABC was paid for with federal grants. The agents will in turn offer their training to police agencies across Texas for free.
