DARE STILL LACKS WRITTEN POLICY FOR COP CONTACTS

Five years ago, the Huntsville Police Department didn't have a written
policy covering after-school contact between DARE officers and
schoolchildren.

Last month, the City Council voted to pay $3.5 million to seven young men
who said they were sexually molested by a DARE officer in 1995.

Today, the city still has no written policy to govern DARE officers' contact
with students away from school. But Police Chief Compton Owens thinks
sufficient measures have been taken to make any future unauthorized contact
unlikely.

Officers have been told by their superiors that unsupervised contact with
children is not allowed, Owens said. The direct, verbal orders carry the
weight of written rules.

''No officer, regardless of their assignment, is allowed to interact with
children in a nonsanctioned activity,'' Owens said.

The city recently settled the lawsuit filed by the youths who said they were
sexually and physically abused by former officer Greg Terry. Terry met the
young men in school when he was an officer with the Drug Abuse Resistance
Education program and had contact with them after school hours.

A grand jury had indicted Terry in connection with the allegations, but he
killed himself in Kentucky in November 1996 before the warrants could be
served. Terry had also been the subject of accusations in 1993, but at that
time a different grand jury failed to indict him, and the city put Terry
back to work in the DARE unit.

Owens, who was not named police chief until late 1996, could not talk
specifically about the Terry case on orders of the city attorney. But he did
talk generally about the department's rules about after-hours contact with
children and the screening process for hiring police officers and for
transfers into the DARE unit.

DARE officers are now supervised by Sgt. Jeff Pendergraft. Pendergraft has
told them directly that unsupervised contact at an event not sanctioned by
the school or department is not allowed, Owens said.

''Everything we do is supervised,'' said Pendergraft, who has been the DARE
supervisor less than two years.

DARE officers work after-school events, such as sports contests or study
halls, but a teacher has to be present, Pendergraft said. The DARE program
taught in the schools requires a teacher's presence as well, he said.

If a DARE officer broke the nonsupervised contact rule, Pendergraft said,
the punishment could range from a reprimand to dismissal from the unit.

''I don't take too lightly officers disobeying a direct order,'' Pendergraft
said.

The DARE unit consists of six full-time officers, a part-time officer and
Pendergraft.

Officers teach DARE lessons to four grades - kindergarten, second, fifth and
seventh - each year. In the 1998-99 school year, they taught 7,549 students
in Huntsville's public schools and 404 in the private schools.

The program is evaluated each year by students, parents, teachers,
principals and Pendergraft.

To become a DARE officer, an officer must have at least two years of
consecutive duty as a full-time Huntsville police officer. Other
requirements and qualifications include a background investigation, a
recommendation from the applicant's commander, no disciplinary action for
the previous year, oral and written communications skills, ability to
provide educational instruction, job knowledge, and appearance and
professionalism.

Officers seeking a DARE position must go before an interview board
consisting of the DARE sergeant (Pendergraft), the training director (Lt.
Kirk Giles), and the city schools coordinator (Nancy Fortner, a guidance
specialist with the city school system).

The board interviews and prepares a file on each candidate, then makes a
recommendation to the police chief with the candidates ranked in order of
their qualifications. The chief chooses the applicant who gets the job.

Hiring process changed

To be a DARE officer, an individual must first be a police officer, and
Huntsville has changed its hiring process since 1989 when Terry was hired
into the department.

The city in the 1980s gave applicants a test that measured general aptitude
for the job, but did not include any predictor or measurement on whether
that applicant should or should not be hired.