DARE OFFICERS TO PRESENT CASE AGAINST BUDGET CUTS

Thirty-six members of the Louisiana DARE Officers' Association met Friday
morning at the Comfort Inn in Opelousas to discuss strategies for
reinstating $3.9 million in program funding that was cut from the state
budget for next year.

DARE officers from the parishes of St. Landry, Lafayette, St. Tammany, East
Carroll, Terrebonne, St. Bernard, Livingston, Lafayette, Calcasieu and West
Baton Rouge participated in the planning session called by Opelousas Police
Department Captain Martin McLendon, the 2002 association president.

"We are meeting to discuss how to approach the governor and legislature to
put the DARE program back into the budget," McLendon said. "The program is
reaching thousands of kids at a minimum cost. It is much less expensive to
educate kids about the harmful effects of drugs then for them to meet us on
the other side. If you don't believe me that the program works, then ask
the children and parents of Louisiana."

Opelousas Police Chief Larry Caillier addressed association members Friday
and encouraged them to talk to their parish sheriffs and state legislators
to lobby Governor Mike Foster and his Commissioner of Administration Mark
C. Drennen. He said that the Louisiana Sheriff's Association is the
strongest association in the state, and that no governor can be elected
without the association's support.

According to Caillier, advocates for DARE will testify at 9 a.m. Monday
before the Louisiana Legislature's Appropriations Committee in an effort to
put DARE's funding back into the state budget for 2003. Caillier told the
officers that Drennen is the chief foe of DARE, and that he must be
educated about the value of the program.

"Our budget now is zero," said Bobby Robinson, a Rapides Parish Sheriff's
Office deputy assigned to the DARE Training Center in Alexandria. "Our
program has been left out of the governor's budget for next year. We are
going to provide the governor with more information so that his
administration can re-address that issue."

According to McLendon, DARE was founded in 1983 by the police department
and school system of Los Angeles. It came to St. Landry under Sheriff
Howard Zerangue in the 1980's, Caillier said.

"The core program is in the fifth grade," McLendon said, "but we are in
junior high schools and high schools. We have visitations in K through
fourth grade."

The Opelousas Police Department will host the 11th annual Louisiana DARE
Officers' Association Conference from July 30 through Aug. 2, McLendon
said, and budget concerns will be a major topic.

"All four Opelousas hotels will have some of our 250 officers who will
attend with their families," McLendon said, who added that workshops will
be held at Opelousas High School.