PA. POLICE ANTI-DRUG PROGRAM MUST RETURN MISHANDLED FUNDS

HARRISBURG -- An embattled police program that fights youth drug and
alcohol abuse has been ordered to return thousands of dollars to the state
after an audit showed the agency had mismanaged funds.

The Pennsylvania DARE Officers Association, which is already reeling from a
probe into embezzlement allegations, will have to return more than $204,468
in unspent money to the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

Officials with the association dispute the audit findings and say they were
misled by Roy A. Willoughby, the commission's former crime prevention
manager, who also oversaw the Drug Abuse Resistance Education program.

Willoughby, a convicted felon, was forced to resign in May 2001 after his
fourth drunken-driving arrest. He is now the subject of a state grand jury
investigation into alleged misappropriation of funds.

The commission said an audit shows lavish spending on conferences continued
after Willoughby left, however.

The audit by the crime and delinquency commission showed that grant money
was not being spent as budgeted, that many expenditures were undocumented
and unspent money was not returned to the state. The audit also showed
there was little oversight on how the money was spent, and that some funds
were used for go-cart rides, miniature golf and barbecues.

Willoughby, 55, was hired in 1971 after serving time in state prison for a
series of burglaries. But as early as 1977, Willoughby claimed on Civil
Service forms that he had no criminal record, The Patriot- News of
Harrisburg reported in yesterday'sy editions.

DARE, one of the nation's most publicized programs to fight youth drug and
alcohol abuse, puts police officers in schools to teach children about the
dangers of drug and alcohol abuse. The Officers Association provides
training for the agency's officers and organizes conferences.

The U.S. Surgeon General and the National Academy of Sciences issued
reports last year saying DARE was largely ineffective. A state commission
study from 1999 showed ninth-graders who are program graduates are more
likely to have tried marijuana than other ninth- graders.

Pennsylvania's funding of the program topped $4.5 million this year in
grants to schools and police departments.

James Thomas, executive director of the commission that performed the
audit, said his agency has stopped providing the officers association with
grants and that the money is instead being distributed through the state
Chiefs of Police Association.

"We're certainly on the same team, but we cannot in good conscience further
put financial support into the association until such time as the
investigation clears the air," Thomas said.

The commission is holding the association responsible for $45,600 in checks
state investigators claim Willoughby said were for a billboard campaign,
but were written to his dead stepbrother. Another $1,329 in checks were
written to Willoughby's mother, the audit showed.

The checks are part of the state attorney general's investigation of
Willoughby, according to a search warrant for Willoughby's bank records
filed last year. The investigation started a year ago.