When it comes to drugs, we dare not follow Seattle

by Jan Deveny

Special to The Seattle Times

DARE, an earlyintervention program which for the past 12 years has
acquainted Washington school children with facts and consequences
surrounding drugs, has been dropped by the Seattle Police Department.

The move evoked concern among other lawenforcement agencies. When
Seattle cuts DARE, people in other cities start asking questions.

There are 133 Washington police chiefs and sheriffs who continue to
provide DARE (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) to the children of their
communities. Some of them encouraged me to tell the other side of the story.

DARE is a program where police officers or deputy sheriffs teach a
curriculum of 16 onehour lessons, usually at the fifth or sixthgrade
level. The lessons provide factual information about drugs and teach refusal
skills through role playing and other techniques.

Seattle Police Chief Norm Stamper appeared on NBC's "Dateline" Feb. 21
and said DARE does not work. This comment was apparently based on one study
that showed no difference in drug use between DARE students and nonDARE
students. Chief Stamper also talked about the need for more officers on the
street.

DARE has been studied extensively. Some studies say DARE makes a
significant difference; others say there is no significant difference. DARE
proponents say everyone loves the program. DARE opponents say you should not
spend tax money on a program that feels good but does not produce measurable
results.

If the studies contradict each other, how do you know what is right?
How do you prove a crime was prevented? How do you prove DARE classes kept
youth from using drugs? How do you catch a moonbeam?

The answers to tough questions are not always in the data. There are
other ways to look at the DARE program and evaluate its effectiveness.

What does it mean, "Does DARE work?" Apparently, to some people it
means that once a young person is exposed to DARE they will never use drugs.
If they later use drugs, it "proves" DARE is failure.

Some young people may use drugs and others won't, regardless of DARE or
other prevention programs. But the decision most young people will make
about drugs will depend on many variables. Prevention programs such as DARE
try to influence those decisions.

The DARE motto is "To keep kids off drugs." Is that a promise, or a
goal? There is a big difference. If you think it is a promise, then you
expect that every child exposed to DARE is safe from drugs forever. That is
not what we should expect. The motto "To keep kids off drugs" is a goal, not
a guarantee.

Another way to think about the DARE studies is to question whether they
make sense. Here is an example. We require young people to take driver
training before we will give them a driver's license. Do we expect they will
never get a ticket? That they will never be in an accident? Of course we
don't, and we don't eliminate driver training because some kids get tickets
or get into wrecks. We still believe the training is good for them. So why
cut DARE because some studies disagree or because there is pressure for more
officers on the street?

Most lawenforcement agencies teach DARE only in one grade and only for
16 lessons. In terms of the whole K12 curriculum, DARE is a oneshot deal;
a small blip on the radar screen of learning. If you expect one shot of DARE
to make your child drugproof for life, you expect too much.

We need a drugprevention and education curriculum that is taught in
every year of school. Most school districts offer much more than DARE to
their students. Drug prevention and education is offered in several grades
and in a variety of curriculums. The key difference about DARE is that it is
taught by a lawenforcement officer.

The police officer in the classroom brings the experience from the
street to the student. The officer has seen firsthand the harm caused by
drugs; harm to the people who use them and harm to their family and friends
who care about them. This experience is valuable to the students and to
their teachers. However, police officers are an expensive and scarce resource.

There are more demands for police officer time than there is time
available. People want officers to patrol enough to be a visible presence
and deterrent to criminals, respond to their calls promptly, keep order in
their neighborhood, solve local traffic problems and arrest the criminals.

The police are also called on to solve many social problems because the
police will respond night and weekends when other agencies are closed. These
social problems include the mentally ill, the homeless, and the alcohol and
drug addicted. There are unending demands on police officer time and never
enough officers to do everything people would like.

When a police chief or sheriff wants to have an officer teach DARE,
there are two ways to do it. The first is to get approval from the city or
county council for an additional officer to do this work. The second is to
take an officer from somewhere else and assign them to teach DARE. Either
way, it is a big commitment for a lawenforcement agency to provide DARE,
even in one grade.

Most people have heard about community policing. There are several ways
to describe it, but they all reflect an interest in building a longterm
partnership with the community.

DARE is a good example of community policing because it seeks to stop
drug involvement before it starts. This proactive policing (preventing a
problem) is seen by many in law enforcement as better than traditional
reactive policing (dealing with the problem after it happens). Many of us
feel the hours spent in a classroom are a better use of police officer time
than arresting drug users or drug dealers.

DARE also allows young people to get to know one police officer in
something other than a `blue light' setting. This is good for the kids and
good for the officers. Some chiefs and sheriffs believe DARE is worth doing
just for its community policing value.

Seattle has decided to cut DARE. Perhaps this is a statement about
budget pressures; perhaps it is a statement about priorities. Perhaps the
133 state lawenforcement agencies still teaching DARE believe that budgets
too often represent shortterm thinking. When it comes to tough problems
like drug abuse, they know they need to be in there for the long haul.

The wellbeing of our young people is a high priority. They have just
as much right to police officer time as the business that has been robbed or
the person who has been assaulted. In law enforcement we can choose to not
do some things, but we have to do all the important things. Most of
Washington's police chiefs and sheriffs think DARE is one of those important
things we have to do.

Expecting perfection is naive. What happens in the classroom does make
a difference in people's lives. Teachers can teach and young people can
learn. If we want to affect the behavior of our young people, we need to
make a longterm commitment to drug prevention and education. DARE is one
part of a longterm commitment to learning. Prevention is cheaper and more
effective than enforcement. Kids are a priority and deserving of police
officer time. DARE is a keeper.

Jan Deveny, director of public safety for Mercer Island, is the past
president of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs.
Mercer Island was the first Washington City to provide DARE.