GENEVA MAY DROP DARE, ADD ANOTHER POLICE OFFICER

The Geneva Police Department wants to stop funding the city's DARE program
because of finances, not effectiveness.

Shedding its full-time Drug Abuse Resistance Education position would allow
the department to respond to growth west of Randall Road with another
patrol officer and fill a vacant investigator position.

By shifting the DARE officer to patrol and hiring one more officer, the
move would add $48,000 to the department's annual personnel costs instead
of double that amount.

"It's not an indictment for or against DARE," Police Chief William Kidwell
said.

The department would continue to split funding with the district for its
unique community intervention specialist position, which runs many
anti-drug programs and helps students in crisis situations.

It also would make its middle school liaison officer available to help a
curriculum with the same goals as DARE, depending on decisions made by the
school district, Kidwell said.

To help minimize any effects from cutting DARE, the department suggested
the district look at Project Alert. The U.S. Department of
Education-endorsed program consists of 11 sessions during sixth grade and
another three during seventh grade - at a much lower cost than DARE.

"It looks to me to be a very effective and well-planned program,"
Superintendent Michael Jacoby said.

Jacoby said the school district has already begun looking at Project Alert
and has plans to collaborate with the city and police should the plan to
discontinue DARE at the end of this school year go through.

Whether the DARE program will return next year depends on whether or not
the city council approves next year's budget with the modifications,
Kidwell said.

The changes would bring the total number of patrol officers from 21 to 22
and investigators from two to three.

The department could then create a fifth patrol beat, which would allow it
to always have a car patrolling west of Randall Road.

"We have two critical needs in the police department that are both
growth-driven," Kidwell said.

St. Charles has been exploring whether to do away with DARE because of
questions surrounding the program's effectiveness.

Federal and university studies have concluded that DARE had no significant
effect on preventing drug use. In addition to DARE in fifth grade, St.
Charles currently offers Project Alert in middle school.