POLICE REACH OUT TO HELP RESIDENTS

Kids put on goggles and drive golf carts to simulate drunken driving.

Children watch a video of talking animals saying no to drugs.

Parents learn warning signs that their kids may be smoking marijuana.

Nationwide, police are using community service programs such as these to
get residents active in crime prevention, said Mike Ward, executive
director of the Indiana Association of Chiefs of Police.

The nationwide trend comes from a simple philosophy: A police department is
an important part of the community and needs to reach out to residents,
Ward said.

Greenwood police are furthering that trend by starting two new community
service programs: a workshop on avoiding online predators and a citizens
academy. The programs are designed to make members of the community more
aware of certain crimes and help them prevent those crimes.

Measuring the success of community service programs is difficult, Ward said.

For example, whether the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program is
successful depends on what research people review.

A 2003 congressional study that followed DARE graduates said the
government-funded program does not affect whether students use drugs or
alcohol. But various student groups surveyed while in the program said they
were less likely to drink or do drugs.

Part of what makes measuring community service success difficult is the way
programs can be perceived, Ward said.

Having a teenager drive a golf cart around cones while wearing blurry
goggles does nothing to make the community safe. But if that teenager gets
an understanding of what it is like to drink and drive, and therefore never
drives while intoxicated, the golf course program succeeded.

Even keeping one person away from drinking and driving would make the
program a success, Ward said.

"If one kid doesn't end up wrapped around a tree, then the good guys win,"
he said.

Internet Predators

No fancy gadgets or help from a computer technician is needed. Simple tools
already built into the computer can help parents monitor their kids'
Internet use.

Greenwood police and school officials are planning a three-week workshop to
teach students and parents how to avoid online predators.

Internet predators stalk people online for personal information or to
arrange meetings that often result in sexual assaults, Greenwood Assistant
Police Chief Rick McQueary said.

More than 20 percent of kids who use the Internet receive sexual
solicitations, according to a congressional study.

For example, a 29-year-old Franklin man chatted online with a 14-year-old
Greenwood boy for a year before meeting and having sex with him in October,
according to Franklin police.

The workshop will teach kids how to avoid online stalkers and educate
parents about warning signs that their children are being targeted by
Internet predators.

The workshop will focus on the technology aspect of cyberstalker prevention
by teaching parents how to know what their kids have used the computer for.

Computers keep history records of every Web site and chat room that users
go to, McQueary said. Parents can learn how to look up computer history
records to see if their kids have visited any inappropriate Web sites.
Certain instant-messaging programs save copies of every online conversation
on the computer, Police Lt. Bob Dine said.

Parents can use these records to see if strangers are trying to get
personal information or arrange meetings.

Students will learn the dangers of giving out personal information online.
Exchanging information can result in fraud or burglary, McQueary said.
"There's a whole host of crimes that could be committed," McQueary said.
"This is not just a sexual-harassment or sex-crime issue."Dine and school
officials were still discussing times and dates for the workshops. Parents
can contact the school or police department to sign up.

McQueary said he would like the program to start in about three weeks.

Citizens Academy

Greenwood police want to show residents that officers do more than pull
over cars and make drug busts. The police department is starting a citizens
academy program to teach residents about how department employees and
officers do their jobs, from the six staff members who manage the accident
and crime records for the entire city to detectives who investigate crimes.

"We want them to know exactly what their tax dollars are paying for,"
McQueary said.

The Schererville Police Department in northwest Indiana started the first
state citizens academy in 1994. Since then, the academies have sprouted
across the state.

Academies in central Indiana include the Marion County Sheriff's,
Bloomington police and Columbus police departments.

Greenwood's citizens academy would be the first in Johnson County. The
academy will give residents a better understanding of how the police
department operates and help expand neighborhood watch groups.

Neighborhood watch groups are formed by residents who discuss local crime
problems and solutions to those problems. They also monitor their
neighborhoods for any strange activity and report that activity to police
to prevent crimes such as burglary.

Besides getting information for neighborhood watch groups, residents in the
citizens academy program will:

* Ride with police officers when they go out on patrol

* Watch officers use the forensics lab to investigate crimes

* Learn numeric codes that dispatchers use when sending police to accidents
and crime scenes

* Spend time with dispatchers who receive calls and send police to various
assignments such as accident scenes and domestic disputes

* Be able to request law-enforcement topics they want to learn more about.

Police will perform background checks on individuals before letting them
into the academy.

Police officials are still discussing dates and times for the academy.

McQueary said he hopes to start the program at the beginning of March.