DARE REVIEW STARTS TUESDAY

The Lethbridge school resource officer program should learn by
Christmas whether it makes the grade.

Sgt. Jamie Fisher said education faculty professors from the
University of Lethbridge will begin Tuesday to survey students,
parents, teachers, nurses and police officers on the effectiveness of
the program.

A review committee hopes to evaluate the surveys in December. Although
some have feared a review might mean the end of the resource officers,
Fisher is expecting that committee to be forwarding recommendations on
how to improve it.

"The Lethbridge Police Service has a long-standing commitment to the
ALERT partnership. . . we look forward to the results and the
opportunity to provide effective programming to the school community,"
he said.

The program, also known as the ALERT program, provides police officers
to schools to deliver educational programs like DARE, provide
enforcement, investigation, counselling and liaison services.

Community health nurses work in conjunction with the police and school
officials. That program is also being evaluated.

The fate of the ALERT program came into question following provincial
cutbacks in 2001. Money was diverted from the police service budget to
make up for the shortfall.

The program, designed to deal with "at-risk" students, began in 1997.