Administration of the Flathead County Alcohol Enforcement Team may have changed hands three months ago, but its commitment to stopping underage drinking remains unshakably the same.

"Our main goal is to save lives and reduce the availability of alcohol to youth," said Alcohol Enforcement Team coordinator and Montana Highway Patrol Sgt. Steve Lavin.

Following a brief hiatus this summer to adopt some small policy changes and train officers, the team has again been hitting the streets and area bars, casinos, and convenience stores to combat youth alcohol consumption.

"We're doing the same things as before with the same team," Lavin said. "I didn't want to change any of the concepts behind it because it's been so successful."

One of the team's goals is to conduct compliance checks - where volunteer underage buyers who, when asked, provided servers or employees with their actual, valid IDs - at least twice a year on every business in Flathead County that sells alcohol.

That's somewhere between 300 and 400 establishments countywide, Lavin said.

"The public needs to be aware that we're out here every weekend doing party patrols and during weekdays doing compliance checks," he said.

But new initiatives - such as the "shoulder tap," where a youth outside a store asks a passer-by to buy alcohol and, if successful, hands the person a card indicating he or she can be prosecuted, or "cops in shops," where law officers work shifts with store employees - also are in the works.

While compliance checks require street clothes and unmarked vehicles, the team will receive easily identifiable uniforms for party patrols and special events.

The Alcohol Enforcement Team is funded by a Montana Board of Crime Control grant, awarded for July 2009 through July 2010, of more than $76,000.

In July, when the Montana Highway Patrol assumed administration of the enforcement aspect of the program, financial administration of the team passed to Linda Ravicher, the project director of the Stop Underage Drinking in the Flathead Coalition.

Operationally, the team will function much like it has in the past - in all areas of the county. The Sheriff's Office still has more members on the team than any other agency.

"We're doing the same thing we always have done. We're keeping all that going," Lavin said.

The majority of the grant money goes to pay for enforcement efforts, such as reimbursing the seven participating area agencies for overtime worked by the 49 officers on the team.

While the grant primarily is for law enforcement, additional money was included to pay for public service announcements, radio spots, billboards and other media campaigns.

"We're still planning some of those activities to educate the public," said Ravicher.

Several billboards already are in place and public service announcement campaigns are being drawn up.

Under the new grant, the team is expected to take an increased role in information-based town-hall meetings for parents and Ravicher hopes to put together a statewide conference to educate law enforcement, prevention professionals, judges, and probation and parole officers about the dangers of underage drinking.

"We want to change our community norms about the acceptability of underage drinking as a right of passage," she said.

Another new component of the current grant is an emphasis on youth input and involvement.

"We're helping to protect our young people by [the team] being out there and breaking up underage drinking parties... because that's where our youths get into trouble," said Ravicher, noting the instances of crashes, DUIs and sexual assaults that occur during such gatherings.

Since its inception in July 2005, officers with the Alcohol Enforcement Team have arrested more than 5,000 minors for using alcohol and 500 adults for providing it. More than 40 youths have been treated for alcohol poisoning.

The seven participating agencies are the Flathead County Sheriff's Office, Montana Highway Patrol, U.S. Forest Service, Montana Department of Fish, Wildlife and Parks and the Kalispell, Whitefish, and Columbia Falls police departments.

Because so many departments are involved, the team builds interagency cooperation, Lavin said.

"A lot of communities... have just the sheriff's office or just the police department involved," Lavin said. "We're unique in that way."

Reporter Nicholas Ledden can be reached at 758-4441 or by e-mail at nledden@dailyinterlake.com