PUT MORE SUFFOLK COPS ON PATROL, FEWER IN CLASSROOMS

Suffolk Police Commissioner John Gallagher's ability to run his department
is constrained by a contract-arbitration award that gives his officers the
highest pay in the country, by stringent limits on overtime and by an
antidrug program that puts officers in classrooms instead of on the street.

Nonetheless, he has stretched his resources to mandate that every burglary
report be investigated by a detective, and to create a career-criminal
investigation section that pairs police and probation officers and a crime
analysis section that maps criminal activity. To do this, he has assigned
Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) officers to community policing when
they are not in the classroom.

He wants to go beyond that and reassign them to other duties. In the
future, he would limit sworn officers to occasional classroom appearances,
to teach specific public safety issues such as awareness about date rape or
gangs. DARE officers now teach a whole 17-week course whose content is
dictated by the national DARE program.

Gallagher makes a good case. He says a new state-mandated curriculum change
makes much of what his DARE officers teach redundant. What's more, he says,
several studies throw doubt on the efficacy of DARE.

But his plan has not been well received. The Half Hollow Hills Council
Parent Teacher Association countered with a "Please save our DARE program"
letter-writing campaign. And several members of the county legislature are
sponsoring bills that would either set up a task force to study the change,
take control of the program from the commissioner or create different, less
costly programs.

Considering the legislature's penchant for micromanagement, these are
dangerous propositions. Gallagher is not a police professional, but he is a
fine manager who has held the job since late 1996. He recently reorganized
the department's top echelon, and he deserves an opportunity to finish his
efficiency reforms.