AUGUSTA – A year ago, a panoply of police chiefs, state troopers and sheriffs held a news conference to launch what they called Project Safeguard aimed at bringing parents into the effort to reduce teen accidents. There is broad agreement it has helped.

“I was skeptical as to how soon the people out in the field were going to embrace it,” Maine State Police chief Col. Craig Poulin said. “And I was concerned how receptive parents would be to it. I have been delighted at the response.”

Project Safeguard asked police to call parents when an underage driver is caught speeding or violating another traffic law. It also urged officers to call the parents of any other underage teens or youth in the car to inform them of the situation.

“I thought we would have people asking why we were calling them and telling us we are the police and go do our jobs,” Poulin said. “There’s been some of that, but by far and away the response has been ‘Thanks for calling, and we will take it from here.'”

He said the state police have not kept statistics on how many times troopers have called parents under the program.

But he said individual troopers have told him about their experiences, and some troop commanders have passed on reports to him from troopers.

“And I have used it myself,” Poulin said. “I used it one night on my way home. The parent was very appreciative of my call.”

Waldo County Sheriff Scott Story, president of the Maine Sheriffs Association, said many sheriffs have been informally using personal contact with parents of teens involved in some situation where deputies got involved. He said formalizing the effort among police agencies has helped in dealing with parents.

“People have heard about the effort when they get the call,” he said. “That’s a big help when they pick up the phone and hear this is the sheriff so and so on the line and I want to talk about your son or daughter.”

Story said sheriffs are not keeping statistics of how many parents they are calling, but he thinks it has increased since announcement of the effort a year ago.

He said his deputies have told him about instances when they have used it, and he says most have had a positive response from the parents.

“If we come into contact with a juvenile that is participating in some unsafe activity, not even necessarily to the threshold of a crime violation, but an unsafe activity, we will contact the parents,” he said. A good example, he said, is a teen riding with another teen pulled over for reckless driving.

“There have been a lot of good comments about this from the chiefs,” said Robert Schwartz, executive director of the Maine Chiefs of Police Association. “But I can’t tell you how many agencies are doing it or how often it is used by those that do use it regularly.”

He said police agencies are required to keep statistics on a lot of activities, some required by law and others by policies. But, he said, no one has proposed keeping track of the phone calls made to parents under the program.

“I think it would be good to know, but I don’t see police having the time now to keep track of everything they are supposed to do,” he said. “Police work is a lot of paperwork already, and more than one officer would tell you they spend too much time on reports.”

Poulin agrees but said even without the actual statistics from law enforcement agencies, he believes the program has been successful.