RUMFORD — Oxford County residents can now provide anonymous information to law enforcement through a new text-a-tip service, Rumford police Chief Stacy Carter said in a news release Tuesday.
The service allows people to report underage drinking and drug use anonymously via text, he said.
To submit an anonymous tip:
* Text “Hi oxtip” plus your tip to 274637 (CRIMES).
* Or submit a tip online on your local Police Department website.
Carter said the new tip software was installed at the Oxford County Regional Communications Center in Paris, thanks to a grant made available to the District Three Underage Drinking Task Force.
The task force was established as Maine’s Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws Assessment, Strategic Planning and Implementation Initiative, a federally-funded national demonstration project.
The district comprises Androscoggin, Franklin and Oxford counties. The task force consists of local, county and state law enforcement agencies, healthy community coalitions and district attorneys.
Chief Carter is the task force coordinator of the Rumford Police Department.
“The focus is to reduce the amount of underage drinking and preventing youth access to alcohol,” Carter said. “We are looking to change the culture that believes underage drinking is a rite of passage. We understand that we likely will not stop all underage drinking,” he said.
“It is our intention to educate the communities so that we can lessen some of the outcomes of underage drinking to include crashes, alcohol poisoning, sexual assault, civil litigation to those that furnish alcohol or a place for underage consumption, to name just a few,” he said.
“We always ask for voluntary compliance,” Carter said.
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