CITY MAY ELIMINATE DARE PROGRAM

In an effort to boost the number of police on Cincinnati's streets, a City
Council majority wants to vote today on ending the DARE anti-drug education
program and transferring those officers to patrol duty.

With a record-setting number of shootings and homicides in the past year,
council supporters said it's more important that the officers be involved
in reducing crime rather than teaching a program that has proved to be
ineffective.

"Studies have shown DARE to have no impact on reducing drug use among young
people, and we desperately need those officers on the street," said Council
Member Jim Tarbell, who made the proposal Tuesday.

"We've taken an enormous hit in the past year," he added. "We need every
officer that we can spare out on the streets."

Other council members supporting the proposal are Paul Booth, John Cranley,
Pat DeWine and Chris Monzel ; meaning the measure has enough votes for
passage unless City Council flip-flops on the issue.

That's what happened in late 2000, when Mayor Charlie Luken ; bowing to
outcry from educators and parents ; pushed to restore money to the city's
DARE program despite voting to approve $250,000 in cuts a year earlier.

City Council followed the mayor's lead at the time.

But with Cincinnati facing a spike in violent crime since last year's
riots, the time has come to make better use of the city's limited
resources, supporters said.

The city spends $351,000 a year on the program, $85,000 of which comes from
a federal grant.

Seven of the police department's 1,000 sworn officers are assigned to the
program, but the number has been as high as 15 in some years.

Several national studies, including one done by the University of Kentucky,
have found that DARE ; Drug Abuse Resistance Education ; isn't effective in
preventing school children from using illegal drugs and alcohol.

More than a dozen studies have indicated the 20-year-old program has
minimal effect on reducing drug, alcohol or cigarette use; it doesn't rank
in the top 10 of programs rated most successful at curbing substance abuse,

and the U.S. Department of Education said its effectiveness is unproven.

Various cities nationally have dropped the program as a result, including
Seattle and Spokane, Wash.; Austin and Houston, Texas; Milwaukee and Omaha.
But about 80 percent of U.S. Schools still use DARE.

"This is somewhat of a courageous thing," DeWine said. "There are some
people very close to the program and like it very much. It may not be fun
(to cut it), but it's absolutely the right thing to do, it's the right
thing for the city."

The city provides the program to 92 local public and private schools.

If the cut is approved, the program wouldn't be ended immediately but
stopped once the current contracts expire in December. Cost is about $5 per
student, which increases to $50 per student once police time is added.