CHATTANOOGA DROPS DARE AFTER POLICE END INVOLVEMENT IN PROGRAM

CHATTANOOGA - Chattanooga police decided to end their involvement in the
DARE anti-drug program, but Chief Steve Parks said officers would continue
to patrol schools in the city.

"We had been looking at doing this on and off for some months," Parks said
Tuesday. "One of the difficulties we had with DARE was that it was
difficult to evaluate the program's success."

A Hamilton County schools spokeswoman said the decision, three years after
Sheriff John Cupp withdrew his officers' involvement, ends the program.

"The data on it was showing the program was not effective," Cupp said Tuesday.

Schools in Cincinnati and Seattle began dropping the Drug Abuse Resistance
Education program in 2001, citing studies that showed it was ineffective.
The DARE headquarters are in Inglewood, Calif., according to the
organization's Web site.

A study conducted at the University of Kentucky in 1999 revealed that
students who took the course in fifth grade did not differ in their
attitude toward drugs some 10 years later.

Records show about 80 percent of the nation's school districts teach the
anti-drug course, and DARE officials have said numerous independent studies
show the program provides benefits.

Cupp, who started the program in county schools in 1990, said it became too
expensive. When Cupp stopped his department's involvement, the city and
county spent a combined $260,000 annually for DARE materials and salaries.

Parks said the city would provide eight officers to patrol 11 schools.

"We are committed to a level of safety inside the schools," he said.