NEWPORT - The young man in the video drinks from a cup, vomits into the cup, then drinks some more - from the same cup.

In a photo posted on the Web, a young naked couple clings together on a bed as peers stand around them, beers in hand.

And there was the story about the time Connecticut State Police discovered a teenager who had hidden under a car when police broke up a party and had passed out - still under the car. Had no one noticed, the teen might have been run over. In another case, a teenager was found passed out in a clothes dryer.

The message yesterday: underage drinking parties are worse than they used to be and the police response - "controlled party dispersal" - has had to become something of a science.

Police officers from around Rhode Island, state officials and representatives of Mothers Against Drunk Driving gathered at Salve Regina University for a look at how to break up parties - parties that law enforcers say have become life-threatening.

The party-stopping and control techniques came out of what the Sheriff's Department in Montgomery County, Md., adopted after a tragedy in 1993, according to Christopher M. Bartolotta, a Connecticut State Police detective, a trainer with the national Underage Drinking Enforcement Training Center. The days of police cars charging up to the house with sirens wailing are generally over because underage drinkers scatter, and that's when problems can begin.

Bartolotta said that when the police learn of a party, they should get as much information from the tipster as they can. Officers can then do surveillance and check records to see a history of calls to the residence. Once they have enough indication of an underage bash, police should converge on the scene, preferably in numbers for safety, though Bartolotta acknowledged that having, for example, 10 officers for one call is unrealistic.

Bartolotta said some parents oppose police trying to enter a residence, such as in cases where adults could be charged with abetting underage drinking, and that can make the obligation to establish probable cause to enter difficult. He recalled a Connecticut case in which officers saved the life of a girl who had been drinking, but whose parents sued the officers for entering. That state has since passed a law allowing officers to enter when someone inside is facing an imminent health threat.

The day-long examination of underage drinking included recently enacted Rhode Island legislation, such as a law that allows speedier prosecution of someone 21 or older who aids alcohol use by minors.

Organized by the state Department of Mental Health, Retardation and Hospitals, the day included state officials and teens involved with Youth In Action awarding Barrington police an award for efforts to stop underage drinking, which Chief John LaCross accepted.

Twelve of the state's police departments applied for the award.