SAME DRUG WAR, DIFFERENT TOOLS

When Drug Abuse Resistance Education Programs Were Launched In The
State In 1987, Easton Was On The Cutting Edge

The Police Department was one of 15 communities picked for a state
pilot program that was heralded as an important drug education
effort. "It was very successful," Police Chief Thomas Kominsky said.
But today, that program - and the money that funded it - is gone and
the Police Department can't get federal money to launch the new
efforts other communities are turning to as a replacement.

Just a handful of local departments - such as Taunton, East
Bridgewater and Hanover - still have official DARE programs in the
schools after state money dried up nearly three years ago. They are
using town money or fundraising to keep those efforts going.

Others are turning to school resource officers - most paid through
federal grants - or other U.S. Justice Department-funded programs to
get or keep police in the schools.

The new programs offered are broader than the original DARE programs,
such as Gang Resistance Education and Training and other efforts paid
through federal grants.

The new programs provided by police in the schools include drug
education - but also encompass Internet safety, efforts to deter
bullying, violence prevention and ways to avoid sexual predators.

In most cases, the officers double as juvenile officers and
investigate crimes involving youngsters.

In Brockton, four officers - their salaries funded through different
federal grants - are assigned to the city's four junior high schools,
where authorities saw a growing need for a police presence. "We are
able to tailor the program to meet the needs of our schools," said
Brockton Police Capt. Emanuel Gomes. "In Brockton, we saw we were
getting most of our problems at the junior high so we targeted our
programs to the junior high level kids."

The department dropped DARE but crafted its own program called DREAMS
- - Drug Resistance Education and Mentoring Students, said Sgt. Kenneth
LeGrice, who oversees the Brockton police school resource officers.
"It is a little bit more in depth than we did," he said. The officers
in the schools also provide a bridge between school and problems in
the community.

"It has helped in other ways," LeGrice said. "We have solved crimes
outside the school, assaults to breaking and entering into homes." In
Raynham, a school resource officer works full-time in the schools,
his salary paid by the town, not grants.

"The conventional wisdom in some communities is that a school
resource officer is an add-on person. That is the last person you
want to remove," Raynham Police Chief Louis J. Pacheco said. "Our
school resource officers are expected to be juvenile officers. They do it all."

The current school resource officer is the police chief's son and a
former narcotics officer who worked undercover for years through the
Bristol County Drug Task Force.

Officer Louis F. Pacheco, the school resource officer, said knowing
the drug culture helps him educate youngsters.

"It lends some credibility to the class," he said. "I've never used
drugs, but I've lived it. I have lived undercover with people who are
completely addicted to drugs, I have seen drugs bought and sold, I
know what is out there." DARE was the first step in drug education,
but times - and funding issues - highlight the need for change, several said.

Part of the need was fueled by studies calling the effectiveness of
DARE into question. A 100-page report by the Governor's Commission on
Criminal Justice Innovation in 2004 found it was one of a number of
programs that was "not found to be effective in preventing crime" and
a University of Kentucky study in 1999 found students in DARE
programs were no less likely to use drugs 10 years later than those
not in the program.

The Raynham police chief said DARE was good for its time. "It was a
brand name that became generic when you talk about preventative drug
education. The programs are good, but many of them are like uniforms
on teams. It depends on the player inside the suit on how good the
program works," Raynham Police Chief Louis J. Pacheco said. "If you
have a good cop that believes in what he is saying and knows the
drugs and drug culture, who believes in what he is doing, the program
will work."

In Easton, the Police Department has repeatedly tried to win federal
grants for a school resource officer since the DARE program ended
three years ago. Two weeks ago, the department was told it was
rejected again for a grant. Easton's Kominsky said he was
disappointed with the news because he sees getting officers into
schools as a key.

"That is community policing at its essence," he said.