Pubdate: Thu, 14 Aug 2008 Source: Bayonne Community News (NJ) Copyright: 2008 The Hudson Reporter Assoc., L.P. Contact: http://www.bayonnecommunitynews.com Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/4858 Note: Please specify Bayonne Community News as source Author: Al Sullivan Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/youth.htm (Youth) Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/dare.htm (D.A.R.E.) D.A.R.E. PROGRAM LOST Cutbacks Force Police Department To Suspend Drug Education Program Forced to choose between providing the city with police protection and educating kids on how to resist using drugs, Police Chief Robert Kubert said he had to choose to man patrols. The D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program, part of the city-funded Cops in Schools Program, has been eliminated because of lack of funding and loss of staff. The city currently has a hiring freeze, and despite retirements, the Police Department has not hired new officers since 2004, Kubert said. When faced with assigning officers to patrols that provide protection to the general public, Kubert chose to do so over more funding to DARE. The police force currently has 42 fewer than the 250 officers stipulated as the maximum by city ordinance. Because the city has decided to cease funding for the Cops in Schools Program, Kubert said D.A.R.E. is being eliminated. "The main function of the Cops in Schools Program is instruction in D.A.R.E.," he said. In 2005, Mayor Joseph Doria dispelled rumors that D.A.R.E. would be shutdown, even though a recommendation by the Municipal Finance Review Committee recommended ceasing the Cops in School Program. Since then, the city, in facing a financial crisis, implemented the recommendation, effectively killing the program. Kubert said D.A.R.E. started with federal funding for the first three years, and later, when funding was reduced, the city took it over. The program eventually became part of the Cops in Schools Program. Kubert said he does not know what will replace the drug education program in schools, although some grant money is available to schools. "It just won't be as intensive as the D.A.R.E. program," he said. Fourteen Officers Taught 3,000 Cops in Schools employed 14 full-time police officers that provided lessons on drug resistance to more than 3,000 kids. "This involves the kids, and it is intense," he said. Kubert said he is aware of some of the criticism of D.A.R.E. In the early 1990s, the Hudson Reporter published the result of several national studies showing few differences between D.A.R.E. and a teacher-based drug program. But Kubert said he believes D.A.R.E. is a good program. "Any positive interaction between students and police is a good thing," he said. "D.A.R.E. gave kids a chance to interact with police officers. This is not just in the classroom, but also on field trips, camps and other events." Although Assemblyman and Bayonne Councilman Anthony Chiappone is seeking to develop a cutback program, such as one that might allow police to teach in one grade instead of the current three-grade levels, Kubert said this wouldn't work. "The program is designed to be taught in three grades," he said. The concept of D.A.R.E. came about in the 1960s as a joint effort between the Los Angeles school district and Los Angeles Police Department to help kids resist drugs before drugs became a serious problem in their lives. While it can vary from town to town, the basic concepts of D.A.R.E. involve a triangular approach with parents, schools, and the police acting in a collaborative effort to guide kids away from drugs and toward a more positive approach to living. D.A.R.E. officers start out in the early grades, largely teaching safety issues that introduce kids to the basics about legal drugs. In later grades, officers reinforce the earlier lessons, but go further into the concept of illegal drugs: what they are, how to recognize them, and why kids should say no to them. Included in these lessons are the impact of drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, and the dangerous of the drug culture. Lessons on each grade level are designed to reinforce the information of earlier lessons and build on it. "It's a three-stage program," Kubert said. "You can't just provide the first stage." Difference In Community Police officials said they have been working on a way to try to replace funding since May, when Police Director Mark Smith discussed the matter with Rep. Albio Sires. Smith noted that since the implementation of the program in the 1990s, more than 40,000 Bayonne students received instruction on how to combat drug use. "It has truly made a difference in their lives in particular and this community in general," Smith said in a letter to Sires in June. "The true success of the program is, however, sometimes difficult to measure. There have been numerous instances where students contacted their own D.A.R.E. officer seeking assistance and guidance regarding personal issues they were confronting." Sires, meanwhile, has contacted D.A.R.E. New Jersey, the state organization that provides training and materials to D.A.R.E. officers, with hopes of gaining assistance. Other Police Shortages Kubert said shortages in other areas are also causing concern, such as the retiring of six plain-clothed officers this year. He said he might have to tap the Community Policing Program to help fill in public safety demands. Kubert also pointed out that the hiring freeze has had an impact in other areas, such as crossing guards, which are down to 43 from 69 last year. Currently, the department can man 45 of the 48 posts. "If the parochial schools hadn't combined this year, the situation would be even worse," Kubert said. But he said he is concerned about the large population of students that will be attending All Saints School, located at the site of the former St. Mary's, Star of the Sea School.