Months ago, an anonymous tip texting system was created through a grant provided to the Oxford County Sherriff’s Office, and since it’s creation it hasn’t gained much attention. Although there has only been one tip sent to the sheriff’s office since it’s creation, local community coordinators are pushing for it’s popularity to spread through Oxford Hills.

“I’d love to see the idea spread,” said Healthy Oxford Hills Program Coordinator Chris Davis.

Davis, along with the rest of the Healthy Oxford Hills staff, have been pushing to get the word out about the OxTip text service. She said that she hopes that community members will keep the OxTip number handy for if they ever hear about underage partying.

“Underage drinking has been a problem for a while,” said Davis. “And it’s what joins us together in the Oxford Hills Substance Abuse Task Force.”

Davis, being a parents herself, knows the importance of keeping children safe and away from illegal substances such as alcohol and recreational drugs.

“When you’ve got kids, you don’t always know what the right thing to do is,” said Davis. “When accidents happen or you hear about things you could have prevented, it’s not a good feeling.”

To Davis, the most crucial aspect to the OxTip service is not just to break a party up, but to prevent accidents from happening as a result of underage drinking Local police departments want to prevent the problems from happening.

Anyone in the community that hears about a possible party happening can send anonymous tips to the police department that can not be traced back to the sender. The police can, however, respond to the text messages for clarification purposes.

“It opens up communication between the dispatch and the tipster,” said Davis. “Anonymity, to me, is really a nice feature for people who don’t always know what the right thing is to do, but they feel that it’s to help protect people.”

In order to help get the word out, Healthy Oxford Hills has sent out bookmarks with information to local libraries and have been given out middle schools and high schools as well as hospitals, and informational stations have been set up outside local restaurants around the county.

To send an anonymous tip to the Oxford County Sherriff’s Office in regards to underage partying,”Hi oxTip” plus any information you have to 274637.