DARE A CASUALTY OF WAR

City Drops Program To Put Cops On Street

America's war on terrorism is impacting a front in the war on drugs in
Jacksonville, where a dozen years of a police-taught anti-drug program was
recently scrapped from schools to put officers on the streets.

A police staffing shortage caused in part because National Guard and
military reservists in the Jacksonville Sheriff's Office have been called
to service scrubbed the national Drug Abuse Resistance Education program --
known as DARE to the thousands of fifth-graders who take it annually -- so
the officers can bolster road patrol units.

While DARE is the only program directly affected so far, the situation may
be a window to future staffing issues as experienced officers retire and
the department searches for ways to attract new recruits.

The move to drop DARE freed 13 officers for patrol duties but ended the
weekly program in the classrooms.

In the 2000-01 school year, 12,182 elementary students took the 17- week
course that teaches about peer pressure and ways to avoid drug use. A part
of school curriculums since 1989 in public and private schools that wished
to participate, DARE's last day in Duval County was Oct. 31.

DARE Funding

In Jacksonville, DARE is funded primarily by the sheriff's budget, though
business fund-raisers and other contributions pay for some workbooks and
other teaching materials.

"If executed well it makes a ... powerful program for the kids," said Paula
Renfro, principal of J. Allen Axson Elementary in Springfield. "I
understand why it is gone. I just look forward to it coming back."

Police officials said they will evaluate whether to reinstate the program
before classes begin in the fall, but DARE was dropped because of immediate
issues after the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks and the call- up of National
Guard and military reservists.

Community Affairs Chief Gordon Bass said that while difficult, a decision
to pull the DARE officers was made because they could immediately fill
patrol vacancies.

"It was a resource we were able to [use to] put a number of officers back
on the street in a relatively quick amount of time," he said.

The department has 82 military reservists and National Guard members,
including 41 in the patrol ranks, who can be called for duty at different
times.

In addition to those vacancies after Sept. 11, the department was
experiencing surges in calls to investigate bomb and anthrax scares.
Assistant Chief Michael Rutledge in the department's community affairs
division said the number of dispatch calls were at an all-time high and
response times were creeping above the preferred range of seven to eight
minutes.

"We had to make a decision about calls for service," he said. "When we saw
that start to creep up, we had to look at that."

This week there were 19 sworn officers called for military duty, said Human
Resources Division Chief Jim Ley.

Ley said the number fluctuates almost daily and is less predictable than it
has been in past conflicts, such as Desert Storm. Instead of anticipating
reservists will be sent to a foreign country for an extended stay, Ley said
they may be gone only a short time.

"They may be gone a year, they may be gone a couple of weeks," he said.
"Some of the National Guard people are being called up and are guarding the
airport."

With the 13 DARE officers returned to patrol duties, schools like Axson
Elementary will have to adjust, Renfro said.

She said the school's DARE officer, Grover Highsmith, volunteered his time
for after-school functions and helped with things such as traffic control.
He knew parents and was visible to the students.

"He was an integral component to character-building and self- awareness,"
she said. "They had a community role model."

Renfro said the school will not be able to teach the anti-drug message with
the same intensity, though character issues will be addressed.

"We just weave those strands into our regular work plan," she said.

Nationally, DARE has stirred debate in recent years as studies contend that
the program is not particularly effective in steering students from drugs.
Budget issues also have played a role in dozens of other cities cutting the
program.