Pubdate: Thu, 15 Jun 2000
Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel (WI)
Copyright: 2000, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
Contact:  414-224-8280
Website: http://www.jsonline.com/
Forum: http://www.jsonline.com/cgi-bin/ubb/ultimate.cgi
Author: Amy Rinard, Journal Sentinel staff

OCONOMOWOC TO LOSE DARE

Decision Based On Money, Sheriff Says

Oconomowoc has become the first school district the Waukesha County 
Sheriff's Department has dropped from its anti-drug-use DARE program - and 
it may not be the last, Sheriff William Kruziki has warned.

"As the county grows and services increase, I can't take any more officers 
out of patrol," Kruziki said. "I've got to prioritize my manpower. I just 
don't have the people to do it all."

After one of four DARE officers left the program, the decision to drop 
Oconomowoc's seven elementary schools from the Drug Abuse Resistance 
Education program for fifth-graders was made reluctantly and purely for 
financial reasons, the sheriff said in an interview Tuesday.

Originally, the four positions came from the department's patrol unit. 
Without more money to hire another officer, Kruziki said, he decided to 
reassign one of the positions back to patrol.

"I'm just taking one position back," he said. "And I may have to take back 
another at some time."

The remaining three DARE program officers will conduct programs in 30 
schools throughout Waukesha County this fall.

Kruziki said the decision to drop Oconomowoc from the program was a 
difficult one, because he believes so strongly that the DARE program 
benefits youths.

The program, primarily for fifth-grade students, emphasizes the dangers of 
drug and alcohol abuse and teaches children how to resist peer pressure and 
reject drug and alcohol use.

The 17-week program, which usually ends with a graduation ceremony, also 
provides counseling for students struggling with drug and alcohol issues.

"When you go to a DARE graduation, you see the interaction between the 
officers and the kids and how much of a relationship has been built up," he 
said. "We don't have much of an opportunity anymore to do that. This is one 
of the best programs to build relationships with kids."

Kruziki said his decision to end the program at Oconomowoc schools was made 
somewhat easier because the city provides a full-time school-police liaison 
officer.

He suggested that one option in the absence of the county-run DARE program 
would be for the Oconomowoc Police Department to conduct DARE programs at 
the schools.

"Some villages have their own DARE officers," Kruziki said. "I am hoping 
some of the municipalities will take a look at doing it with their own 
officers."

However, Lt. Jeffrey Schmidt, operations officer for the Oconomowoc Police 
Department, said that his agency will not launch its own DARE program for 
the local schools.

"At least in the short term, we're not going to be able to do that," 
Schmidt said Tuesday. "We're not in a position ourselves manpower-wise to 
do it."

He said the department's full-time school-police liaison officer is 
assigned to the high school only.

An application is being made for federal funding for another school-police 
liaison officer to be assigned to the middle school. "But as it stands 
right now, we have not been awarded a grant for that," Schmidt said.

Even if that position is funded, fifth-grade students for whom the DARE 
program is designed do not attend middle school, he said.

In addition, several elementary schools in the sprawling Oconomowoc School 
District are not in the city and are outside the jurisdiction of the police 
department. Two of the elementary schools are in the Town of Oconomowoc, 
one is in Jefferson County and another is in Dodge County.

While Kruziki and District Attorney Paul Bucher have been outspoken 
advocates of the DARE program, others, including some County Board 
supervisors, have been less enthusiastic about it. Last fall during action 
on the county budget, several members of the County Board's Judiciary and 
Law Enforcement Committee said they were not convinced DARE was worth the cost.

The county spends about $420,000 a year on the program of which about 
$200,000 is reimbursed with state and federal money and from other sources.

"That's a lot of money, but until we come up with something better, I'm not 
going to criticize it," Supervisor Mareth Kipp of North Prairie, chairman 
of the committee, said of the program.

She said Kruziki's move to drop Oconomowoc from the program caught 
committee members off guard.

"We're all disappointed," she said. "Maybe Oconomowoc will be able to think 
this through because there is a stipend from the county for communities 
that do their own DARE programs."

Greg Maass, school district superintendent, was on vacation, and a phone 
call to the School District office seeking comment was not returned Tuesday 
or Wednesday.
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