SEATTLE -- Just as schools are being let out for the summer and graduation parties are getting underway, the King County Sheriff's Office announced its plans to drop its Party Patrol Task Force.

The program aimed at preventing underage drinking and driving is the latest to fall victim to the county budget ax.

The last big underage bash in the county was busted up about a week ago by Issaquah police, who are members of the task force. Thirty four teens and adults under 21 were cited.

But from now on, the county's streets will no longer have the task force to depend on for teen safety.

And the timing couldn't be worse. With warm weather here and a long summer vacation ahead for students, conditions are ripe for underage drinking. The possibilities even have law enforcement officials uneasy.

"We don't like to think about the ramifications of this. None of them are good," said sheriff's spokesperson John Urquhart. "Primarily it's going to be high school kids - 16, 17, 18, 19 year olds - doing this."

But even as they worry, there's little deputies can do to save the task force.

"We just don't have any money," Urquhart said.

The sheriff's office is dealing with a $7 million budget cut and the resulting loss of 65 deputies. The task force relied on deputies working overtime.

"This is a big one. None of us want to see teenagers die from drinking and driving, and we think we've been very, very successful in keeping that from happening.

"To corral that party to keep everybody from driving away, to keep everybody from running away, to collect evidence to get inside the house maybe with a search warrant, make the arrests, to put a stop to the juvenile drinking -- it takes a lot of people," Urquhart said.