'WE WON'T LET DARE DIE'

Local Police Vow To Keep Drug Education Afloat While Bracing For Deep State
Cuts

Central Illinois police departments will dig deep into their budgets to
keep the DARE program in local schools, officials said, despite a looming
state cut to its funding.

Although a top Illinois DARE official recently predicted that half of the
state's schools currently offering the country's most popular childhood
drug prevention program will be forced to drop it by year's end, no current
programs in the Tri-County Area are going anywhere, an informal survey showed.

Before former Gov. George Ryan left office, he eliminated $1.5 million in
state funding to pay for Drug Abuse Resistance Education student workbooks
and officer training. Police agencies across the state were warned late
last year that they'll have to bear those costs themselves if Ryan's
proposal passes.

The new government in Springfield has yet to formally make that decision,
but police departments are getting prepared.

"In police work, you prepare for the worst and hope for the best," said
Tazewell County Sheriff's Deputy Brad Potts, a DARE officer for four years.
"We're not going to let (DARE) die. We're going to do anything we can to
keep it here forever. The only reason it will be gone is if we have nowhere
to go."

At a cost of $2 for ordering and shipping each DARE student workbook, Potts
predicts an added expense of about $700 for his department. That means less
money for other crime prevention programs.

Other departments operating on more stringent budgets face a tougher task
of finding the money for the DARE supplies. They'll look at grant
opportunities and appeal to the schools, local businesses, civic
organizations and the community for support.

Canton DARE officer Denny Brown said his department hasn't decided where
the $800 to $1,000 in book money will come from, as his local school system
is facing its own budget problems.

"I would like to think we'd come up with the money," Brown said. "It's a
big benefit to the city, to the police department and to the citizens. I
would hate to see it gone. I would hope that's not in the realm of
possibility."

The Peoria County Sheriff's Department already has paved the way in proving
that a little public support will go a long way to save a well-liked
educational program. Parents, teachers and community members spoke out to
save the DARE program in county grade schools when the late Sheriff Chuck
Schofield was forced to cut it in the tight budget times of spring 2002.

Thanks to more than $25,000 in private donations, they were able to bring
DARE back that fall. However, the good news came for them at the same time
the Peoria Police Department was forced to cut its own DARE program because
of city budget cuts.

The Peoria County Sheriff's Department recently learned it has received a
federal policing grant that will pay for three more years of the program.
The added workbook costs will come out of that private donation fund money,
which now will cover supply shortfalls, Sheriff Mike McCoy said.

Minier Police Chief Daryl Weseloh, who has taught DARE for 12 years at four
rural Tazewell County grade schools, is none too happy about the proposed cuts.

"We're going to really have to consider creative ways to fund the program,"
he said. "This is going to affect so many people."

Local police may have to go in together to purchase the workbooks in bulk
supply to cut down on the cost of shipping the supplies from California, he
said. Ideas are still floating around on how new DARE officers will be
trained if the Illinois State Police cuts its DARE training center, as many
worry.

DARE has faced struggles before, Weseloh said, from budget issues to
criticism of the program's effectiveness. He has enough confidence in DARE
to believe it will survive.

The program celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Founded in Los
Angeles, DARE was hailed as a major advance in the war on drugs. Today, it
reaches about 25 million children a year on issues including drug abuse,
self esteem, peer pressure and stress.

In the late '90s, a number of studies concluded that DARE had little effect
on students' drug use. The negative research results seemingly got more
publicity than positive studies commissioned by DARE America itself.

To address those charges and to keep itself current, DARE America has
researched and adopted a new curriculum that places more emphasis on drug
prevention. It will be more interactive and less like a lecture. The
program's length will drop from 17 weeks to 10 weeks, and multi-grade DARE
classes are recommended to keep the message constant in children's minds as
they age and face more peer pressure.

If police departments across the state lose their DARE programs in the next
year, Peoria County sheriff's deputy and longtime DARE officer Cal Walden
says it's because of money.

"I'm confident it's not a reflection on the DARE program; it's how they do
their budgets," he said. "Certainly the cuts are going to affect everybody."