I strongly disagree with the suggestions made by Sean Collier in his recent column, "Drinking citations cause more harm than good," April 5. He complains police randomly crash parties in order to find underage drinkers. He suggests police follow the model of seat beat enforcement, where you only get ticketed for a seat belt when pulled over for something else. The problem with this analogy is that wearing a seat belt helps to save your own life, while underage drinkers are putting others' lives in danger if they drink and drive. Police must try to prevent these crimes; catching underage drinking after these crimes are committed is not enough.

Collier suggests we should not have to be afraid of police, but rather view them as allies. Without the fear of getting in trouble, what's to stop one from wrongdoing? Fear of law enforcement only occurs when you are doing something wrong. Police are the allies of those who abide by the law.

Collier states this town has such a big drinking problem but he only addresses a method to make it a bigger problem by allowing more underage drinking. If underage drinking weren't a problem, the police would stop crashing parties.