BARRINGTON — In a effort to stop underage drinking before it starts, the police are turning to the insiders: young people who know where the next party might be.

The police have set up an anonymous tip line and distributed fliers in the middle and high schools urging young people who hear when and where underage drinking will take place to call it in. Their calls will not be recorded, and the police will not ask for any identifying information, Chief John LaCross said.

“It’s given, hopefully, the young kids of this town the ability to report something without giving their name. It gives them prevention power, basically,” LaCross said. He added that the effort was not aimed just at preventing large drinking parties but also illegal alcohol or drug use on a smaller scale.

Some young people in town may go to the parties but not want to drink, LaCross added. “I think many kids, whether it’s Barrington or Smithfield or California, can agree that some of these underage parties get carried away,” with alcohol use increasing risk of other problems such as sexual assault.

The tip line is one of several more assertive prevention efforts in Barrington over the past two years. The Town Council last year approved a consent form parents can sign to tell the police when they will be away from home, giving patrols a place to keep eyes on for signs of illicit drinking.

LaCross said the idea for a tip line came out of a national conference he attended in Baltimore in August. The police and the Barrington Substance Abuse Task Force teamed up to create and promote the tip line.

Stickers bearing the tip line number may be made available to young people.Though the student tip line is new, LaCross said, the police have received tips in the past from neighbors or others about suspected underage drinking. It happened a few weeks ago, when residents called the police about suspected drinking activity.

“Our officers went to the area, where [the youths] were last seen and we confiscated a full bottle of Russian vodka. So that one call prevented a number of kids from possibly going into the woods that night” to drink, said LaCross. He added: “We are just hopeful that maybe some kids see the consequences that may happen and maybe it’s something they know of that … there is going to be some liquor or drugs. And the whole idea is prevention.”

In February, the police arrested three teenagers for alcohol possession at a Plymouth Drive home whose owners were away on vacation. None of the young people found at the house lived there.

Last year Barrington took several steps to combat underage alcohol use, in part because of a car crash that took the lives of two Barrington High School sophomores, though the police have said there was no correlation between a party the boys briefly attended and the accident.

Last year, the town also toughened penalties for student athletes found drinking alcohol. The School Committee approved that policy, including adoption of a second-offense penalty that suspends a student for 365 days from the time of the incident.

The committee also decided to allow alcohol-detection devices, such as a Breathalyzer, in certain circumstances at dances and other school-related events starting this calendar year.

The council unanimously endorsed the police offering of the form, partly because it didn’t expand police powers. The Rhode Island chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union had argued against it.