D.A.R.E. PROGRAM LOST

Cutbacks Force Police Department To Suspend Drug Education Program

Forced to choose between providing the city with police protection and
educating kids on how to resist using drugs, Police Chief Robert Kubert
said he had to choose to man patrols.

The D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) program, part of the
city-funded Cops in Schools Program, has been eliminated because of lack
of funding and loss of staff.

The city currently has a hiring freeze, and despite retirements, the
Police Department has not hired new officers since 2004, Kubert said.

When faced with assigning officers to patrols that provide protection to
the general public, Kubert chose to do so over more funding to DARE.

The police force currently has 42 fewer than the 250 officers stipulated
as the maximum by city ordinance.

Because the city has decided to cease funding for the Cops in Schools
Program, Kubert said D.A.R.E. is being eliminated.

"The main function of the Cops in Schools Program is instruction in
D.A.R.E.," he said.

In 2005, Mayor Joseph Doria dispelled rumors that D.A.R.E. would be
shutdown, even though a recommendation by the Municipal Finance Review
Committee recommended ceasing the Cops in School Program.

Since then, the city, in facing a financial crisis, implemented the
recommendation, effectively killing the program.

Kubert said D.A.R.E. started with federal funding for the first three
years, and later, when funding was reduced, the city took it over. The
program eventually became part of the Cops in Schools Program. Kubert said
he does not know what will replace the drug education program in schools,
although some grant money is available to schools.

"It just won't be as intensive as the D.A.R.E. program," he said.

Fourteen Officers Taught 3,000

Cops in Schools employed 14 full-time police officers that provided
lessons on drug resistance to more than 3,000 kids.

"This involves the kids, and it is intense," he said.

Kubert said he is aware of some of the criticism of D.A.R.E. In the early
1990s, the Hudson Reporter published the result of several national
studies showing few differences between D.A.R.E. and a teacher-based drug
program. But Kubert said he believes D.A.R.E. is a good program.

"Any positive interaction between students and police is a good thing," he
said. "D.A.R.E. gave kids a chance to interact with police officers. This
is not just in the classroom, but also on field trips, camps and other
events."

Although Assemblyman and Bayonne Councilman Anthony Chiappone is seeking
to develop a cutback program, such as one that might allow police to teach
in one grade instead of the current three-grade levels, Kubert said this
wouldn't work.

"The program is designed to be taught in three grades," he said.

The concept of D.A.R.E. came about in the 1960s as a joint effort between
the Los Angeles school district and Los Angeles Police Department to help
kids resist drugs before drugs became a serious problem in their lives.

While it can vary from town to town, the basic concepts of D.A.R.E.
involve a triangular approach with parents, schools, and the police acting
in a collaborative effort to guide kids away from drugs and toward a more
positive approach to living.

D.A.R.E. officers start out in the early grades, largely teaching safety
issues that introduce kids to the basics about legal drugs. In later
grades, officers reinforce the earlier lessons, but go further into the
concept of illegal drugs: what they are, how to recognize them, and why
kids should say no to them. Included in these lessons are the impact of
drugs, alcohol, and tobacco, and the dangerous of the drug culture.

Lessons on each grade level are designed to reinforce the information of
earlier lessons and build on it.

"It's a three-stage program," Kubert said. "You can't just provide the
first stage."

Difference In Community

Police officials said they have been working on a way to try to replace
funding since May, when Police Director Mark Smith discussed the matter
with Rep. Albio Sires.

Smith noted that since the implementation of the program in the 1990s,
more than 40,000 Bayonne students received instruction on how to combat
drug use.

"It has truly made a difference in their lives in particular and this
community in general," Smith said in a letter to Sires in June. "The true
success of the program is, however, sometimes difficult to measure.

There have been numerous instances where students contacted their own
D.A.R.E. officer seeking assistance and guidance regarding personal issues
they were confronting."

Sires, meanwhile, has contacted D.A.R.E. New Jersey, the state
organization that provides training and materials to D.A.R.E. officers,
with hopes of gaining assistance.

Other Police Shortages

Kubert said shortages in other areas are also causing concern, such as the
retiring of six plain-clothed officers this year. He said he might have to
tap the Community Policing Program to help fill in public safety demands.

Kubert also pointed out that the hiring freeze has had an impact in other
areas, such as crossing guards, which are down to 43 from 69 last year.
Currently, the department can man 45 of the 48 posts. "If the parochial
schools hadn't combined this year, the situation would be even worse,"
Kubert said.

But he said he is concerned about the large population of students that
will be attending All Saints School, located at the site of the former St.
Mary's, Star of the Sea School.