W. VAN POLICE JUST SAY NO TO DARE

Popular Drug Education Program Not Reaching All Ages

The West Vancouver Police Department has cancelled its Drug Abuse
Resistance Education (DARE) program, due to its ineffectiveness in
preventing at-risk youth from substance abuse.

"While it's clear that DARE has received strong community support,
there is no evidence that it's been successful in reaching its goals,"
said WVPD spokesman Cpl. Fred Harding.

He said the decision to end the program was not taken
lightly.

Harding cited a study done by Art Steinman, co-ordinator of
Vancouver's school-age children and youth substance abuse prevention
program (SACY), which states drug use and binge drinking amongst youth
is on the rise. "What we have is this program that, if it's so good or
as good as it's been declared, why is there an increase?"

Since 1995, the DARE program has been delivered by specially trained
community policing officers to students in grades 5 to 7 in the West
Vancouver school district.

Harding said while DARE provides a foundation for students, it's still
not enough.

"There are kids in West Vancouver who are in safe houses or working
with social services because they are so at-risk, and I haven't got a
clue who they are," he said. "We need to be in there much, much
earlier assisting those kids."

The police department spends around $300,000 annually to deliver the
DARE program, the primary task of their community services unit. Those
resources could be better spent reaching kids of all ages, according
to Harding.

"DARE exceeds our capacity to deliver a really good program across the
K-12 spectrum," he said.

"The chief constable has got a responsibility to account for that
money being spent in the very best way. It's not good enough to
deliver a program that people like."

Geoff Jopson, superintendent of the West Vancouver school district,
said the DARE program was an effective way of teaching prevention.

"The officers who deliver the program are well trained and they are
very good at engaging our students to get that message across to young
people in terms of the challenges with substance use."

But he agreed there needs to be a program in place to connect with
younger and older students.

"This is a complex social issue and it's challenging to deliver a
program that meets the needs of children at every age level."

According to Jopson, schools will develop new prevention curriculum to
be delivered by teachers, instead of police officers.

"We'll make some adjustments over the next six months to make sure we
have a strong and vibrant prevention program being taught in our schools."

Harding said he looks forward to working with schools to create a more
valuable program.

"We firmly believe as a police department that we can do our best job
in a partnership with the school district and the people who have a
vested interest in the health and welfare of youth. And that's what we
really hope we can do."

So far, it remains unclear what the three officers who've previously
been involved in DARE will be doing.

"Those officers can be doing something else," said Harding. "I don't
want to say what that is just yet because we haven't gotten into that
level of discussion."