The Pennsylvania Liquor Control Board (PLCB) is now offering training to police officers to teach party dispersal tactics in an effort to crack down on underage drinking throughout Pennsylvania.

Sgt. Dana Leonard of the State College Police Department, along with two other members of the department, attended a training session last Wednesday. Leonard said he welcomed the opportunity to learn from the PLCB.

"As I understand the training, the purpose is to manage the dispersal of a party. Sometimes young people panic. They jump out of windows, run into traffic. We don't want that," he said.

Mary Beth Wolfe, a PLCB alcohol education specialist, said the program aims to provide officers with instruction on developing a plan for individual situations.

"The officers are taught tactics in an organized manner instead of just sweeping in," she said.

"Even times if the party is too big, they can stop the vehicles as they leave."

Penn State University Police Supervisor Bill Moerschbacher said having a plan when breaking up parties is helpful, but parties are often broken up when individual patrol officers are on rounds and do not have time to formulate a plan of action to deal with the situation.

"I think anytime when you can identify the party [in advance], a plan works," he said.

Additionally, officers often encounter students who are trying to evade underage citations using a variety of methods.

"Running is the most common. We've had people try to jump out of windows if they think they have a chance to escape," Moerschbacher said.

He said officers are trained to chase students who try to flee from the scene, but the officers also carry radios to contact other officers to assist in the situation.

The Pacific Institute for Research and Evaluation created the nationwide program, which focuses on the safety of the people involved in cases of underage drinking at parties.

Instead of using its national trainers, the PLCB paid for 13 Pennsylvania police officers and two district justices to be trained in the state. Currently, the commonwealth is the only state with its own trainers.

Training took place at Dickinson College in December, and the program has been available since January.

"[Pennsylvania trainers] are more aware of and attuned to Pennsylvania law than national trainers," Wolfe said.

The program uses a Web site that contains data on successful tactics in dispersing parties and comments from other officers. Leonard hopes this training will help have an effect on combating underage drinking in the area.

"I hope we can have an impact on the excessive drinking, the dangerous drinking," Leonard said.

Wolfe said the PLCB hopes to change some of the social norms associated with underage drinking by implementing programs like the party dispersal.

"Some parents don't think it's such a bad thing [to drink underage]," she said, warning parents on the dangers of illegal alcohol consumption.

Wolfe added that other social ills such as assault, vandalism and destruction of property are associated with excessive drinking.

This training comes on the heels of an $80,000 grant to the State College Police Department from the PLCB for the source project, which also aims to combat underage drinking.

"The safety and well-being of the community are the primary [goals]," Wolfe said.