Amherst & UMass combine for alcohol ed.

AMHERST, Mass. (WWLP) - The Amherst Police are working with the UMass Amherst Police to educate the community about alcohol laws.

Both police forces will be passing out flyers to members of the community. These flyers contain useful information about all of the laws that deal with alcohol, noise, and unlawful assembly.

Police are hoping that when students or residents see the penalties that are associated with these crimes that it will make them think twice about violating them, especially since many of these violations come with hefty fines.

Some of laws are obvious like not consuming open containers of alcohol on public property. But others are not so obvious like the Keg Possession Law, in which you have to have a keg license which is issued by the chief of police. That way they know where the kegs are in case of large disturbances or large parties.

If police find someone has a keg without a license, they are charged $200 for the first offense and so is anyone else who lives at the house where the keg is being held. So let's say there are four students renting a house and they have an unlicensed keg? That would mean an $800 fine between all four of them.

Police say this knowledge is important in deterring off campus parties.