Two Harvard students are under arrest for trying to buy alcohol from undercover cops," an anchor for Boston's WHDH-TV read at the top of the 11 p.m. newscast the Saturday before Thanksgiving last year.

The arrests of the two first years was the top news that night, and for good reason.

Underage students and alcohol have proven a deadly mix in the past several years, and that has led a mix of campus, municipal and even federal agencies to implement innovative new programs aimed at squelching underage drinking.

The most public of those--Cops in Shops--will soon celebrate its one-year anniversary in Cambridge. Although police, campus and city officials tout the program's success, its impact is unclear.

In last year's incident, the two students--who both asked that their names not be used in this article--were charged under a 1993 law that made it illegal for minors to possess alcohol.

Just before 8 p.m. on Friday, Nov. 21, one of the male students used the identification card of a 25-year-old friend to buy beer from the L'il Peach convenience store at 1105 Mass. Ave.

His roommate waited anxiously outside.

After the purchase was made, the two walked out the door and down the sidewalk where they found three men in uniform blocking their path. At that point the first two Cops in Shops arrests were made.

"In the end, I guess it wasn't that horrible of a thing," says one of the students. "But it was a tough time."

"It was one of the first times that I'd ever gotten into any serious trouble with anything. We were ad-boarded afterward," he says.

The student refuses to discuss the disposition of his case, but says that the matter has passed and that he's trying to move on with his life.

The Standard Sting

After nearly a year of stings, the Cops in Shops motus operandi has become fairly routine, according to both students and municipal officials.

Officers work in pairs, sporting college-type clothes--usually jumpsuits that hide the traditional blunt-edged law enforcement equipment. One cop walks the isles of the store, while the other strolls around the outside of the building.

If a clerk notices a suspicious identification card--or sees a group of gawking teenagers waiting outside for booze, he or she will quietly give a sign to the partner.