HPD CHIEF UNVEILS PLAN TO EXPAND DARE PROGRAMS

Five months after an independent study found the city's DARE program
largely ineffective, Houston Police Chief C.O. Bradford on Wednesday
announced plans to expand the drug awareness program to younger
students as well as parents.

Calling it an enhanced Drug Abuse Resistance Education program,
Bradford said Houston police also will include other local anti-drug
and alcohol programs as a way to reinforce the DARE message.

Bradford unveiled the plan in a presentation to City Council on
Wednesday, saying he believed the changes would make Houston's DARE a
model program for the nation.

"I think DARE works," Bradford said. "I think DARE must be revised
before we can move forward with the program."

Last August, a study by a University of Houston-Downtown social
sciences professor concluded that the city's DARE program was only
marginally successful in steering youngsters away from substance abuse.

"There is very little compelling evidence to suggest that the primary
goal of the DARE program is being reached at a statistically
significant level," Professor Bruce Gay wrote.

On Wednesday, Gay stood beside Bradford and discussed the changes
recommended by an advisory committee convened by the chief after
receiving last year's critical study.

Among the changes:

. The program will be expanded to younger and older students. During
the last school year, 29,100 fifth-graders and 24,200 seventh-graders
were taught the 17-week DARE curriculum. In addition, 135,000 kids in
kindergarten through fourth grade received visits from DARE officers.

Under the revised program, the early grade visits would be
discontinued in lieu of a set of four 20-minute lessons presented to
about 17,000 fourth-graders. Bradford said that would begin during the
current semester.

By narrowing the focus to fourth-graders, DARE officers will be able
to spend more time with students, he said.

The chief said the department also would begin a pilot program for
10th-graders at Madison High School this semester.

. HPD will make the DARE program available to all parents, emphasizing
communication, peer pressures, resistance skills, media messages, drug
recognition and an examination of their own lifestyles and choices
that may influence their children.

Bradford said the DARE parent programs and materials would be offered
in the workplace, as well as at public facilities across the city.

"Children, in some instances, know more about drugs, and the anti-drug
methods and drug recognition than parents do," the chief said.
"Unfortunately, some of the parents are not armed with the information
they need to provide the proper guiding, coaching, counseling for
their children."

Bradford hopes to include other anti-drug, anti-tobacco and
anti-violence programs in DARE. Implementing programs such as the STEP
Tobacco Program and the Palmer Drug Abuse Program could reinforce the
DARE message, Bradford said.

. An annual professional evaluation of the DARE program would be
conducted to ensure its objectives are being met.

Council member Ray Driscoll, who has been one of the strongest critics
of DARE, commended Bradford for revising the program. During last
year's budget process, Driscoll unsuccessfully attempted to cut the
city's DARE funding by 50 percent, arguing that the program was

ineffective.

Driscoll said he was particularly pleased to see the department look
to other local programs in making the changes.

"I think we are going in the right direction," the council member
said. "It's not necessarily the same direction as the national DARE.
I'm hoping the trial program you're going to be running this semester
works out."

Bradford said the national program, DARE America, had participated in
the committee and agreed to the recommendations to deviate from its
original curriculum.

Mayor Lee Brown also praised the changes, saying he thought it would
make the program better.

The city's DARE program costs $3.7 million a year to operate. Bradford
said the changes could be implemented at no additional cost to the
city.