Underage drinking is another problem police often have to tackle. On Tuesday, some local law enforcement officers learned new ways to fight the booze battle with teens.

When police today crash a drinking party it's no longer something little. It's about preventing a possibly big problem.

"The old days of rolling up and scaring the kids and watching them run that has to go by the wayside. When we do that we release potentially intoxicated kids into the public. It creates an environment that not only endangers those kids but everyone else in the community," Scott Friedlein with the Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center says.

Friedlein is training about two dozen officers from six police departments in Tazewell County about proper ways to bust a party.
He calls it the Controlled Dispersal Program.

"It allows for better evidence collection and allows for better control. And, the biggest thing is it reduces the public safety concern," Friedlein says.

Tazewell County Deputy Chuck Linton says the class has opened his eyes to new ways officers can even prevent a party from happening.

"We're using social networking sites as an investigative tool to give us a heads up on what's going on and as a way that even if the party is to occur we can use these for prosecution," Linton says.

Even with a bunch of backgrounds and multiple layers, you would think the days of fake ID's are done. Instead, police are also learning ways to find out if it's a fake.

"As we adjust or make changes, so does the criminal element. That's the scary part," Friedlein tells News 25.

Tuesday's class is part of an overall effort called the Tazewell Teen Initiative. It started a couple years ago after 15 teens died in car crashes in a span of 15 months in Tazewell County.

"We're three years into it and today's training is just another aspect of it. It's great that we haven't had any teenage fatalities since 2006 and we continue and pray it doesn't happen," Sgt. Tony Halsey with Illinois State Police says.