KCK POLICE PHASING OUT DARE SCHOOL PROGRAM

The Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program is being phased out in
Kansas City, Kan., schools and will be discontinued at the end of this year.

A spokesman for the police department, which funds and oversees DARE, said
last week that budget constraints had forced the department to terminate
the program.

"We have manpower problems," said Capt. Michael Kobe. "So we have to trim
where we can. It's unfortunate, but it's just a fact of life today."

DARE, a nationwide program founded in Los Angeles in 1983, puts specially
trained law-enforcement officers in elementary-school classrooms to teach
children to avoid alcohol and drug abuse.

The program was introduced to Kansas City, Kan., schools in 1991. It
operated in about 40 elementary schools in several districts.

Originally funded largely with federal grants, the entire funding for the
program fell to the police department in 1995. In 2000, it racked up a
$457,337 bill for six DARE officers and their supplies. This year, the
program was trimmed to four officers. Those officers, Kobe said, would be
reassigned to patrol duty.

Kelli Mather, director of prevention services for the Kansas City, Kan.,
School District, said the decision to end the program came entirely from
the police department.

The program, she added, was being phased out of the schools, with officers
periodically stopping into classes. None of them, however, had set up
traditional DARE courses this year.

Last year, the effectiveness of those courses was called into question by
the National Center of Addiction and Substance Abuse, which released a
report that showed "little evidence...of any extended impact" from DARE.

Kobe said the study did not influence the department's decision.