FEWER LOCAL COMMUNITIES USING D.A.R.E. PROGRAM

When the state cut D.A.R.E. money to Hanover two years ago, the Police
Department refused to cut the program.

The force used cash seized from drug dealers to keep the program going in
the schools, and there are no plans to stop it.

"It works for us," Police Chief Paul Hayes said. "We feel very strongly
about it."

But not everyone is that supportive and, with the state financial pipeline
for Drug Abuse Resistance Education cut two years ago, fewer police
departments are keeping the program.

Now, a 100-page report released Monday by the Governor's Commission on
Criminal Justice Innovation could further doom the program.

The commission found D.A.R.E. was one of a number of programs and
initiatives that was "not found to be effective in preventing crime," a
signal to some law enforcement officials that funding will not be
reinstated. The report did not detail why D.A.R.E. was on the list.

Lt. Gov. Kerry Healey criticized D.A.R.E., saying it doesn't work, and a
1999 study by researchers at the University of Kentucky found students who
were in D.A.R.E. programs were no less likely to use drugs 10 years later
than those who weren't in the program. Also, the U.S. General Accounting
Office found, after reviewing six studies of the program, that there were
"no significant" differences between students who went through D.A.R.E. and
those who didn't.

"D.A.R.E.'s message comes out not sounding quite true," said Donald R.
Lynam, one of the authors of "Project D.A.R.E.: No Effects at 10-year
Follow-up" and an associate professor at the University of Kentucky. "It
allows kids to dismiss the whole message."

But other studies, including one two years ago in the Journal of the
National Medical Association and another ongoing study by the University of
Akron, found that D.A.R.E. students were five times less likely to start
smoking and showed improved communications skills and beliefs about
substance use -- indicators of whether they will use drugs.

"I don't know if any department could tell you if it really works," Avon
Police Chief Warren Phillips said. "You just hope the kids get the message
and when they are in a situation they remember what they learned."

Budget cuts cause decline

D.A.R.E. programs are already on the decline in the state as funding
shrinks and departments turn to school resource officers and other programs
where grant money is available.

"Some police chiefs took the money because it was there but really didn't
buy into the program," East Bridgewater Police Chief John Silva said.

For example, 328 of the 351 Massachusetts communities had D.A.R.E. programs
in 2002, said Domenic DiNatale, executive director for D.A.R.E.
Massachusetts. Today, there are 200 programs -- and many of those that are
still running have been scaled back.

"If people are saying there is more substance abuse today, that is not the
fault of the D.A.R.E. program," said Frances Botelho-Hoeg, principal at the
John H. Duval Jr. Elementary School in Whitman. "D.A.R.E. gives kids the
tools, another set of tools, to deal with it. It is something that
shouldn't be brushed aside ... It helps children to make appropriate choices."

Abington, Lakeville, Brockton, Avon, Middleboro, Mansfield, Easton,
Raynham, Berkley, Holbrook, Wareham and Randolph are just a few of the
departments in the state that dropped D.A.R.E. programs when state money
stopped two years ago.

"When there are just 15 to 20 officers on the department, you need the
extra money to keep the program going," Lakeville Police Chief Mark Sorel
said. "The program was good. It worked for us, but it was crucial for the
state to supplement it for the program to continue."

Sorel, sharing the sentiment of other chiefs, said the D.A.R.E. program
provided the funds to put a police officer in the school, allowing closer
interaction between law enforcement and youths.

When Abington lost its $11,000 state D.A.R.E. grant used to fill shifts
when the D.A.R.E. officer was teaching classes in the schools, the
department tried to keep the program going using town funds. "I had money
in the budget, we had a grant from a corporation," Abington Police Chief
Richard Franey said.

That lasted one year. "Then my budget was cut and we had to eliminate
D.A.R.E.," Franey said.

In Avon, all that's left of the D.A.R.E. program is a specially painted car
a special police officer worked to create with local business. "There is a
need for some type of program in the schools," said Avon's Police Chief
Warren Phillips. "If D.A.R.E. doesn't come back, it is important to have
another program to replace it."

Phillips said the program helped provide drug education and allowed
students to know local police in a different setting. "We try now to do
what we can in the schools but it is hard," he said, citing budget concerns.

Many departments wound up replacing D.A.R.E. -- with its structured
national curriculum where an officer goes into the schools for a few hours
to teach a class -- with programs tailor-made to the community, piecing
together town money, donations and money from other sources. Some also
turned to using school resource officers who are stationed at local schools
usually full time and often develop specialty programs, ranging from
anti-bullying to drug prevention, for youth.

Raynham assigned a police officer, who is also the juvenile officer, to the
schools , integrating crime prevention, drug education and anti-bullying
programs into the effort.

While the town has used D.A.R.E money in the past, it did not depend on the
cash for school-based programs. Chief Peter King and former selectman Marie
Smith at least eight years ago included the cost of a new patrolman to be
assigned to the schools in the police budget to make sure the effort
continued even if state or federal money vanished. The current salary of an
officer is about $30,000.

"We wanted to have a police officer in the schools," King said. "It is too
important not to have one ... It builds up a lot of rapport with the kids.
We want them to know we are there if they need any help."

Deputy Police Chief Louis J. Pacheco said that forward thinking helped the
town when grant money vanished.

"We never counted on D.A.R.E. funds. As the grants went up and down, that
was never a problem for us. Chief King set it up so we would have
consistency. He didn't want it to be one of those programs that, as soon as
the funds disappear, so does the program," Pacheco said.

Pacheco said having officers in schools winds up being cost effective in
the long run because juvenile problems can be addressed early and
authorities can learn what troubles may be brewing in the community. "It is
paying off in investigations, without question," he said.

The personality of a school-based officer and how he or she relates to
students is key in whether the program will thrive, he said.

"If you have a good officer in there, it works good," said Pacheco, whose
son is Raynham's current school resource officer. "If the officer doesn't
jell with the kids, the program won't work, no matter what it is. It is a
case-by-case basis."

New programs tried

Brockton dropped D.A.R.E. when the money vanished but replaced it with the
federally funded Gang Resistance Education and Training program and a
school resource officer program using five officers in the city's junior
high schools, Police Chief Paul Studenski said. Federal money is used to
pay for supplies, training, overtime and program costs. The cost for five
Brockton officers yearly is $258,000.

Capt. Emanual Gomes said with national studies questioning the
effectiveness of D.A.R.E. coupled with no funding for it, the city opted
for different programs with broader goals.

"We needed to address problems that were shown to us and for the needs we
had, it really wasn't targeting the problems," he said. "We were starting
to see a rise in problems of a criminal nature coming out of the junior
high school and needed to address that."

The officers have made arrests at the junior high schools and provide added
security, Gomes and Sgt. Ken LeGrice, who coordinates the program, said.
"We treat the junior high schools like a community policing beat," Gomes said.

The zero tolerance philosophy of D.A.R.E. could be one reason for its
failure with many children, said David Lewis, founder of the Center for
Alcohol and Addiction Studies at Brown University in Providence.

"The D.A.R.E. program has an impact for the moment when it is delivered but
it seems to diminish as they grow older, particularly when they see older
children using drugs without the disastrous effect," he said. "One of the
problems with a zero tolerance philosophy is we sometimes markedly
exaggerate the dangers rather than taking a more honest, more straight
forward, approach ... The credibility suffers over time."

But, despite the criticism, some departments say they are determined to
keep D.A.RE. alive.

"It goes beyond drug education," Kingston Police Chief Gordon Fogg said.
"For every person who is a naysayer, there is a person who supports it."

Pam Kelley of Kelley Research Associates, which has studied a number of
crime-fighting efforts in Brockton and the state, said D.A.R.E. remains
intensely popular among police departments, despite studies that show the
program may not stop drug use because it brings officers into the
classroom. "It really has a much more broad goal for many departments," she
said. "It gives the officers the opportunity to build relationships with
students. This may be one of those cases where the goals may have shifted.
It builds trust with the students and I don't see any of the police
departments giving it up any time soon ... It may be one of those cases
where the goals were a little too lofty. It may not do one thing but it
does a lot of other good things."

Lynam agreed. "D.A.R.E. may be useful for a lot of things but not what it
was designed for. It is good community policing. It lets police come into
the schools," he said.

D.A.R.E. has its defenders

But intense defense of the program -- despite its shortcomings -- may lead
to schools disregarding other programs.

"What I worry about is if D.A.R.E. supplants more effective programs," he
said. "I do worry if a school has D.A.R.E., they may feel we don't need to
do anything more," Lynam said.

The principal at the Duval School in Whitman said she's seen how the
program has helped children during the course of her 32-year career.

"They tend to be more cognizant of things in their home. You will find kids
coming and saying things like who is smoking or experimenting. They are
more aware of things and I do think it has an impact," Botelho-Hoeg said.
"It is also good to have the police officers in the school so the children
can see them as members of the community."

Carver, Kingston, East Bridgewater, West Bridgewater, Hanson, Pembroke,
Stoughton, Rockland, Taunton and Hanover are some of the departments that
still have D.A.R.E. and pledge to keep the program in the schools.

"It doesn't work for every kid, we know that. Education doesn't work for
every kid," East Bridgewater Police Chief John Silva said. "The program is
all about the personal contact with the cop and a troubled youth. It offers
a person they can go to for help. It brings the officer into the school
with the young people."

In West Bridgewater, there are two trained D.A.R.E. officers -- one is set
to retire soon -- and a golf tournament sponsored by the Charlie Horse
restaurant raises about $10,000 to buy supplies and pay for the buses to
send children to D.A.R.E. camps.

If it wasn't for the tournament money, the D.A.R.E. program would "be out
of business" in town, West Bridgewater Chief Robert W. Kominsky said.

"I don't have national studies on whether D.A.R.E. fulfills the mission it
set out to do. The positive side to me is it gives a positive presentation
to the students of the police," he said. "They see us in a light other than
the bad guy coming in. If we have a juvenile problem, the program has
helped us. It is a community relations issue."

DiNatale said there are studies now being done that will show the
effectiveness of D.A.R.E. and some critics have their own agenda.

"The majority of those critics of the D.A.R.E. program you would find they
have their own program that they are trying to sell you," he said.