ANTI-DRUG EFFORT LOSES U.S. FUNDS

Some Oklahoma law enforcement officials were surprised Thursday to learn
that a state board has decided to cut hundreds of thousands of dollars in
funding for DARE anti-drug programs.

The decision by the state Drug and Violent Crime Grant Board means that
Oklahoma will stop using federal grant money to help cities and counties
start DARE -- Drug Abuse Resistance Education -- programs, The Oklahoman
has learned.

"I hate to hear that," said Walt Brown, undersheriff of Caddo County in
southwest Oklahoma. "It's been a good program and has worked well for us in
this county."

Kingston Police Chief John Canoe said he has sent letters to state
officials protesting the decision.

"We stand to lose a DARE officer out of Madill who comes into Kingston to
teach our fifth- and sixth-graders," Canoe said. "It doesn't look good."

Nearly $700,000 in federal grant funds were awarded this fiscal year to
help more than 20 Oklahoma communities pay DARE officers to teach school
children about the dangers of drugs, gangs and violence.

Typically, the grant program has given communities up to four years of
funding to create DARE programs, said Kathy Sharpe, a grant programs
administrator at the state District Attorneys Council. After the four years
of grants, the city or county has been expected to find local money for the
DARE program.

But the state board that decides how to spend Oklahoma's share of federal
drug and violent crime grant money has decided that DARE is no longer a
high priority.

Instead, Sharpe said Thursday, funding priorities for the 2000-2001 fiscal
year "will be on criminal history information systems and meth lab
interdictions and more of an enforcement impact."

"Hence, the funds will not be going to the funding of individual DARE
officers," Sharpe said.

DARE funding already had declined in previous years, dropping from $919,709
in 1997-98 to $800,981 last year. This year's state funding is $693,276.

According to meeting minutes obtained by The Oklahoman, the board voted
unanimously in September to eliminate DARE funding next year, except for
the state training center operated by the Department of Public Safety.

Voting "yes," according to the minutes, were as follows:

Woodward County District Judge Dean Linder; Suzanne McClain Atwood,
executive coordinator of the District Attorneys Council; Malcom Atwood,
director of the Oklahoma Bureau of Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs Control;
Muskogee County District Attorney John David Luton; and Scott Watkins,
designee for Public Safety Commissioner Bob Ricks.

Also voting "yes" were Jerry Hire, designee for Oklahoma State Bureau of
Investigation Director DeWade Langley; Kenny Holloway, designee for Kathy
Waters of the state Corrections Department; Fred Means, designee for
Oklahoma Attorney General Drew Edmondson; Ann Domin, chief of criminal
justice planning for the Indian Nations Council of Governments; Stillwater
Police Chief Norman McNickle; Osage County Sheriff Russell Cottle; and
Jerry Regier, director of the state Office of Juvenile Affairs.

However, the Stillwater police chief said the minutes were wrong and that
he was absent that day.

"Frankly, I've made some inquiries, and I was just told the board had
decided to move some other direction," McNickle said Thursday. "As you
might imagine, I'm a little concerned."

McNickle said he plans to bring up the issue when the board meets next week
for the first time in months.

"The majority of those grants ... are, in general, (for) smaller agencies
that don't have a lot of discretionary funds that they can use to fund the
DARE program," he said. "It may be the only way some agencies can do it."

Like many Oklahoma communities, Stillwater funds its own DARE program.
Statewide, DARE reached 69,482 students in 727 schools last year, said Lt.
Herbert McDonald of the Department of Public Safety. There are about 200
DARE officers statewide, said McDonald, the program's state coordinator.

While popular, DARE's effectiveness in keeping children from experimenting
with drugs has received mixed reviews nationally. Nevertheless, law
enforcement officials contacted Thursday praised the program.

"Due to the rapport that our officer has with kids all over the county in
various schools, I know that he's helped some kids through personal
problems ... and family-wise and otherwise," said Brown, the Caddo County
undersheriff. "We get a lot of teachers and parents who have bragged on the
program."

DARE is more than warnings about drugs, alcohol and gangs, McDonald said.

"What we're trying to do is give them a sense of self esteem, a sense of
self worth," he said.

McClain Atwood said the board chose to focus funding on two areas: the need
for more money for multicounty crime-fighting task forces and for enhancing
criminal history computer systems.

The Guthrie Police Department has received a state DARE grant the past
three years. Next year would have been the last grant, but Police Chief Jim
Bishop is still concerned about what losing the funding will mean.

"I'm a little disappointed, because our budget isn't to the point where we
can probably completely inherit this (DARE officer) position and not have
to trim some other areas," Bishop said.