Police Department
Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program
(D.A.R.E.)

The new D.A.R.E. program is a 10-week curriculum presented to students who are in the sixth grade. The objectives of the program are as follows:

• Provide elementary school students with the skills for recognizing and resisting social pressures to experiment with alcohol, tobacco, and drugs.
• Help students develop self-esteem.
• Teach positive alternatives to substance use.
• Develop students’ skills in risk assessment and decision making.
• Build students’ interpersonal and communication skills.
• Provides positive relationships between police and youth.

Prevention programs have proliferated in response to concern about substance abuse, particularly among young people. However, an understanding of the effects of these programs is only beginning to emerge. One such program is the school-based Drug Abuse Resistance Education Program (D.A.R.E.). D.A.R.E. is distinctive for a number of reasons, among them: its widespread adoption throughout the country; its use of trained, uniformed police officers in the classroom; and its combination of local control and centralized coordination.

Created in 1983 by the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified School District as a substance abuse prevention program for grades K-12, D.A.R.E. uses a core curriculum consisting of 10 hour-long weekly lessons taught to fifth and sixth graders. Since it was founded, D.A.R.E. has expanded to encompass programs for middle and high school students, conflict resolution, gang prevention, parent education, and after-school recreation and learning. The curriculum has also been revised over the years as a result of research findings and is now more interactive; that is, it promotes active participation by students. D.A.R.E. has also established a Scientific Advisory Board to aid in self-evaluation and recommend program changes.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department started its D.A.R.E. program in 1991 with Officer Jeannie Dailey serving as the first D.A.R.E. officer for the department.  Since the initiation of the program, countless of school-aged youth have benefited from the curriculum.

A new addition to our D.A.R.E. Program is the 2002 35^th Anniversary Z-28 Camero.  The D.A.R.E. car is equipped with a stereo system, television, and Play Station to make the program appealing to children.  With the help from COAD Chevrolet, JCS Tel-Link, Auto Trim Design and MTX, the D.A.R.E. car became part of the department’s fleet in the beginning of 2005.  The vehicle is used not only at the area schools, but it is also used in special events and is assigned to the department’s D.A.R.E. Officer, Patrolman Shaun Smelser. 

In the summer of 2005, the D.A.R.E. car received first place at the State D.A.R.E. Conference in Springfield, Missouri.   The vehicle has been honorably mentioned in several nationally syndicated magazines.