UPLAND POLICE DEPARTMENT SUSPENDS DARE PROGRAM

Agency that already has a shortage of officers expects more to leave;
spokesman says patrol duties come first.

UPLAND -- Citing lack of manpower, the Upland Police Department
suspended its DARE program this week, but members of the community
DARE committee say they will fight to get it back.

"This is important to all the kids in the sixth grade," said Wendy
Macias, vice chairwoman of the DARE committee. "We need to see if
other programs can be cut to continue this."

The police suspended Drug Abuse Resistance Education just as the final
four of the 10 schools in the district were scheduled to start the
17-week program for sixth graders. Police officials said they didn't
have the staff to keep enough officers on the streets and continue the
program, which requires two officers full-time.

"We don't have the staff to do our basic law enforcement mission,"
said Lt. Ed Gray, a police spokesman. The department is down 10 of its
57 patrol officers and knows it will lose other officers over the next
couple of months, Gray said. The department is one of the lowest paid
in the county, which makes recruiting difficult in a time when there
is already a shortage of qualified candidates, Gray said.

The DARE committee, made up of community members appointed by the City
Council, will meet with the police chief and superintendent of the
Upland Unified School District on Wednesday. They say they will
question the department's strict hiring requirements and other
programs in an effort to find a way to salvage the program this year
and in the future, Macias said.

Gray said the police didn't want to let the program go, but they saw
no alternative.

Students at Cabrillo, Sierra Vista, Sycamore and Citrus elementary
schools are not expected to receive the drug, alcohol, tobacco and
violence resistance program this year. The police will finish the
programs at the district's other six elementary schools but limit
other DARE community activities to maximize patrol time for the officers.

Principals at the four affected schools say they are finding
alternative ways to work the program's message into the classrooms.
But it doesn't replace the positive interaction between officers and
students. Police and school officials complain that too often the only
time children see officers is when someone is in trouble.

Todd Hoien, principal at Sierra Vista, said he will look into having
an officer spend time at the school as an alternative.

"We used to be lucky enough to have a beat officer stop and eat lunch
with the kids," Hoien said. "It makes a difference."