ANDOVER TOWNSHIP POLICE HEAD BACK INTO SCHOOLS TO RUN D.A.R.E.

When Phillip Coleman became chief of the Andover Township Police
Department, he dared his officers to become more involved in the
community. Now local schools will reap the benefit from officers who
met that challenge.

"I felt we needed to get back into the schools," Coleman
said.

Coleman, who has been chief since March, said one of his first goals
was to get an officer in his department trained to run the Drug Abuse
Resistance Education Program in the Andover Regional School. He asked
for volunteers and two officers were chosen - Patrolman Gil
Taglialatela and Patrolman Rod Mosner.

"I want the kids to recognize them (the officers) and know who they
are," Coleman said.

As the senior officer, Taglialatela received D.A.R.E. training first.
He attended a two-week training course in Bergen County to learn how
to teach in the classroom.

The program, designed to teach children how to avoid drugs and
alcohol, is slated to begin at Long Pond School in February. It will
consist of one 45-minute class a week for 10 weeks.

For the first year, the class will only be offered to the sixth grade,
but it may branch out to the fifth grade and possibly even
second-graders in the coming years, Taglialatela said.

The program was previously run by the Sussex County Sheriff's Office.
The Sheriff's Office began the program in the late 1980s, said Chief
Michael Reich. "We used to do everybody, but the past year or two,
they have been phasing in their own (officers), which is good," Reich
said.

Both the children and the officers benefit from a localized D.A.R.E.
program, Reich said. Children get the chance to meet the officers and
get to know them and it's good for the officers to learn about the
children as well, he said.

"And it's a good thing because it takes the pressure off of us," Reich
said.

Lafayette, Frankford, Wantage, Sussex Christian, Ogdensburg, Montague
and Sandyston are the only schools that still use the Sheriff' s
Department D.A.R.E. program, he said.

Coleman said D.A.R.E. isn't the only community outreach program the
Andover Police Department is involved in. The department also offers
Safety Town, a program designed to teach pre-kindergarten children the
importance of traffic signs and regulations, as well as a Halloween
Safety course. Officers also perform daily security checks of both
schools, he said.

Taglialatela has been involved in various school education programs
for the past 14 years and said he enjoys working with the young children.

Even if children don't know a particular officer, they will recognize
the uniform, so being out in schools helps the local children relate
better to the police department.

Taglialatela often has children approach him when he's off-duty
because they remember him from school programs.

"They recognize your face; they even know where you live," he said
with a laugh.

Taglialatela said other than expanding to more grades, the department
is also considering a parent education program if local parents are
interested, he said.

"Input from parents would be great," Taglialatela said.