D.A.R.E. - Cut it or Keep it?
By Jan P. Deveny
Director of Public Safety
Mercer Island, Washington

D.A.R.E., an early intervention program which for the past 12 years has acquainted Washington School children with facts and consequences surrounding drugs, has been dropped by the Seattle Police Department; a move which evokes concern among other law enforcement agencies. When Seattle cuts D.A.R.E., people in other cities start asking questions.

There are 133 Washington police chiefs and sheriffs who continue to provide D.A.R.E. to the children of their communities. Some of them encouraged me to tell the other side of the story.

D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) is a program where police officers or deputy sheriffs teach a curriculum of 16 one-hour lessons, usually at the fifth or sixth grade level. D.A.R.E. curriculums of different lengths are available for K through 12. The lessons provide factual information about drugs and teach refusal skills through role playing and other techniques.

Chief Norm Stamper of the Seattle Police Department appeared on NBC Dateline on February 21, 1997 and said D.A.R.E. does not work. This comment was apparently based on one study which showed no difference in drug use between D.A.R.E. students and non-D.A.R.E. students. Chief Stamper also talked about the need for more officers on the street.

Battle of the Studies

D.A.R.E. has been studied extensively. What do the studies say? They disagree. Some say D.A.R.E. makes a significant difference, other say there is no significant difference. D.A.R.E. proponents say everyone loves the program. D.A.R.E. opponents say you should not spend tax money on a program which feels good but does not produce measurable results.

If the studies contradict each other, how do you know what is right?  How do you prove a crime was prevented?  How do you prove D.A.R.E. classes kept youth from using drugs? How do you catch a moonbeam?

The answers to tough questions are not always in the date.  There are other ways to look at the D.A.R.E. program and evaluate its effectiveness.

Are We Asking the Right Questions?

What does it mean, "Does D.A.R.E. work?"  Apparently, to some people it means that once a young person is exposed to D.A.R.E. they will never use drugs.  If they later use drugs, it "proves" D.A.R.E. is a failure.

Some young people may use drugs and other won't, regardless of D.A.R.E. or other prevention programs.  But the decisions most young people will make about drugs will depend on many variables.  Prevention programs such as D.A.R.E. try to influence those decisions.

The D.A.R.E. motto is "To keep kids off drugs."  Is that a promise, or a goal?  There is a big difference. If you think it is a promise, then you expect that every child exposed to D.A.R.E. is safe from drugs forever.  That is not what we should expect.  The motto "To keep kids off drugs," is a goal, not a guarantee.

The Common Sense Test

Another way to think about the D.A.R.E. studies is to question whether they make sense. Here is an example. We require young people to take driver training before we will give them a drivers license. Do we expect they will never get a ticket? That they will never be in an accident? Of course we don't, and we don't eliminate driver training because some kids get tickets or get into wrecks. We still believe the training is good for them. So why cut the D.A.R.E. because some studies disagree or because there is pressure for more officers on the street?

Another example worth questioning is the notion that what occurs in the classroom has no impact.  Some studies conclude that teachers have no ability to teach or to change the behavior of their students.  This offends common sense. Most of us (and most teachers) believe teaching works.  The huge public education system we support says we believe education is important and it does make a difference in people's lives.

At the same time, we recognize that not every student learns everything perfectly or remembers it forever.  We also recognize that people can behave in harmful ways even when they know better.  We never seem to outgrow the ability to do something foolish.

Do We Expect Too Much?

Most law enforcement agencies teach D.A.R.E. only in one grade and only for 16 lessons. In terms of the whole K through 12 curriculum, D.A.R.E. is a one shot deal; a small blip on the radar screen of learning. If you expect one shot of D.A.R.E. to make your child drug proof for life, you expect too much.  If someone promised you one shot of D.A.R.E. would make your child drug proof for live, you were misled.

We need a drug prevention and education curriculum which is taught in every year of school, K through 12.  Most school districts offer much more than D.A.R.E. to their students.  Drug prevention and education is offered in several grades and in a variety of curriculums such as, "Here's Looking at You 2000."  D.A.R.E. is only one of the many curriculum options available to school districts.  The key difference about D.A.R.E. is that it is taught by a law enforcement officer.

Law Enforcement Commitment

The police officer in the classroom brings the experience from the street to the student. The officer has seen firsthand the harm caused by drugs; harm to the people who use them and harm to their family and friends who care about them.  This experience is valuable to the students and to their teachers.  However, police officers are an expensive and scarce resource.

There are more demands for police officer time than there is time available.  People want officers to patrol enough to be a visible presence and deterrent to criminals, respond to their calls promptly, keep order in their neighborhood, solve local traffic problems, and arrest all criminals.  The police are also called on to solve many social problems because the police will respond nights and weekends when other agencies are closed.  These social problems include the mentally ill, the homeless, and the alcohol and drug addicted. There are unending demands on police officer time and never enough officers to do everything people would like.

When a police chief or sheriff wants to have an officer teach D.A.R.E., there are two ways to do it.  The first it to get approval from the city or county council for an additional officer to do this work.  The second is to take an officer from somewhere else and assign them to teach D.A.R.E..  Either way, it is a big commitment for a law enforcement agency to provide D.A.R.E., even in one grade.

Community Policing

Most people have heard about community policing. There are several ways to describe it, but they all reflect an interest in building a long term partnership with the community.

D.A.R.E. is a good example of community policing because it seeks to stop drug involvement before it starts.  The proactive police (preventing a problem) is seen by many in law enforcement as better than the traditional reactive policing (dealing with the problem after it happens).  Many of us feel the hours spent in a classroom are a better use of police officer time than arresting drug users or drug dealers.

D.A.R.E. also allows young people to get to know one police officer in something other than a "blue light" setting.  This is good for the kids and good for the officers.  Some chiefs and sheriffs believe D.A.R.E. is worth doing just for its community policing value.

Priorities

Seattle has decided to cut D.A.R.E.  Perhaps this is a statement about budget pressures; perhaps it is a statement about priorities.  There are 133 law enforcement agencies in Washington continuing to teach D.A.R.E.  Perhaps they believe that budgets too often represent short-term thinking.  When it comes to tough problems like drug abuse, they know they need to be in there for the long haul.

The well being of our young people is a high priority.  They have just as much right of police officer time as the business which has been robbed or the person who has been assaulted.  In law enforcement we can choose to not do some things, but we have to do all the important things.  Most of Washington's police chiefs and sheriffs think D.A.R.E. is one of those important things we have to do.

Summary

Expecting perfection is naive.  What happens in the classroom does make a difference in people's lives.  Teachers can teach and young people can learn.  If we want to affect the behavior of our young people, we need to make a long term commitment of drug prevention and education. D.A.R.E. is one part of a long term commitment to learning.  Prevention is cheaper and more effective than enforcement.  Kids are a priority and deserving of police officer time. D.A.R.E. is a keeper. 

Jan Deveny is the past president of the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs. Mercer Island was the first Washington City to provide D.A.R.E..