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.