AMHERST - This year, Amherst Police tried a new approach to discouraging binge drinking and noisy partying. Officers visited the Southwest residential area at the University of Massachusetts and distributed copies of bylaws.

The point: To let students know what will and what will not get them in trouble on or off the UMass campus.

"The last thing we want to do is arrest people," Police Chief Scott Livingstone said. "If you want a keg, have a keg permit, speak with your neighbors - and if the cops do come, be respectful."

Every year, Amherst and UMass police meet regularly about ways to contain trouble, Livingstone said.

Whenever a major sports event, such as a Red Sox vs. Yankees game or the Super Bowl when the Patriots are involved, is likely to draw intense partisan interest, or there's a campus event at which large crowds are expected, the two police forces are in close communication.

Both the Amherst and UMass police forces are relatively small, with roughly 45 officers in the Amherst department and 55-60 in the campus police.

Now, as the semester winds to a close, more police have been on duty. Some officers are working overtime to ensure that responsible decisions are being made around town. The departments were once again ready to tackle problems - and think they have been successful.

The department uses a system called computer-aided dispatch, which quickly shows incidents so the police can respond to emergencies. "It shows how many times we've been there in the past," said Sgt. Charles Nelson. "It gives a history of any location."

This helps officers know what to expect.

When police go out on duty for the weekend, they watch areas that usually present problems, like Hobart Lane in North Amherst and the neighborhoods around Phillips and Fearing streets. Police work to keep parties from getting out of control. "We don't have the authority to just break a party up," he said, "We seldom show up without any calls."

They did just that during the infamous "blackout" weekend April 24, when 33 people were arrested in Amherst for infractions related to drinking and partying. That night, 12 UMass students were hospitalized in Northampton, taxing emergency department staffers in the city's hospital.

Understaffed Amherst police received help on that weekend from state police. "If there's any danger, we'll break up a party," Nelson said. "The state police were also doing a lot of open-container arrests. ... We don't look to just arrest people. The end result is to keep anyone from getting hurt."

The chief believes the problem of rowdy behavior by students is being solved. "Zoo-mass" seems a thing of the past. "It's gotten much better," Livingstone said. "The number of students who get arrested is a very small percentage, maybe 5 percent."