“I go to a lot of community meetings and the number one issue the community has identified for me to deal with is college behavior and all the problems it brings,” Evans said.

The proposal was triggered by the violent rioting in Kenmore Square after the Red Sox win in the final game of American League Championship Series last month, Murphy said. An Emerson College student, Victoria Snelgrove, was killed by police as they attempted to quell a riot with pepper spray. At a recent meeting convened by city politicians and police to investigate the causes of Snelgrove’s death, police said that one of the major crowd-control problems that night was the number of inebriated students who spilled out of keg parties from off-campus houses. This tracking law would help police plan for similar concentrations of kegs in the future.

Murphy said that on a day-to-day basis this measure is about protecting the quality of life for residents of these neighborhoods and allowing police to prevent wild parties more effectively.

“The police have had problems with keg parties in residential neighborhoods,” Murphy said. “It’s our duty to protect public safety and quality of life. Something needs to be done and this is a necessary first step.”

More than 10 states and various local jurisdictions across the country have instituted similar keg-tracking legislation. Tracking kegs would allow police to focus more attention on houses with multiple kegs, which are often the source of problems, Evans said.

“Hopefully it will make [students living off-campus] take more responsibility if they’re going to have large-scale parties,” Evans said.

This includes rowdy behavior, but also underage drinking, he said. “This sort of fixes responsibility on whoever purchases the keg,” said Evans.

“If we can stop the excessive flow of alcohol that kegs bring to neighborhoods it’s a step in the right direction,” he said.

However, Jeff Dolin of Blanchard’s Wine and Spirits in Allston disagreed about the possible effect of keg tracking.

“It won’t deter anything. Buying 30 packs of beer will go up, buying cheap vodka will go up,” Dolin said. “You may have more alcohol overdoses and possibly more deaths,” Dolin said.

—Staff writer Margaret W. Ho mwho@fas.harvard.edu.