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[NullForceOmega]

I agree completely, I remember D.A.R.E., probably one of the best community outreach projects for inner-city environments.  I was aghast when I heard that it had been ended, I know people who were actively helped by the program, I was one of them.  I really wish that initiatives like D.A.R.E. could make a comeback.

[nenjin]

D.A.R.E didn't work for me, but, I think they're message is pretty dated. (As an aside I don't really agree with the whole 100% abstinence policy. In fact I think it under equips teenagers for their later life when they inevitably have to face questions about what they put in their body and why. But that's a different topic.)

[smjjames]

I thought D.A.R.E. was a failed attempt at fighting the war on drugs? At least the focus was anti-drug rather than generic community outreach.

D.A.R.E didn't work for me, but, I think they're message is pretty dated. (As an aside I don't really agree with the whole 100% abstinence policy. In fact I think it under equips teenagers for their later life when they inevitably have to face questions about what they put in their body and why. But that's a different topic.)

Yeah, anti-drug can't be your only message when trying to do community outreach as drugs wouldn't be their only problem.

[NullForceOmega]

D.A.R.E. was never a failure at being an outreach program, it was a failure as an anti-drug program.  Most of the program's accomplishments (at least in my area) was a massive reduction in arrest rates among juveniles and an overall reduction in crime and repeat arrests/incarcerations.  To me and the people it helped, familiarity with our police force and the sense of being able to trust officers was vastly more important than the anti-drug message.

I really feel that something like D.A.R.E. is an absolute necessity right now, the lack of familiarity between police and the communities they serve is a huge part of the problem.

[nenjin]

For sure. From the public's side (especially the youths) talking to police officers and seeing them as actual people is as necessary as the police re-learning how to see the communities they serve as people, and not just potential arrests or crimes waiting to happen.

I know we had "school resource officers" for years at my high school, and I feel like it was a good thing both for students and for the school itself. The school resource officer was often brought in to situations where no crime was committed, and they often acted as a moderating influence on the situation.

Of course, that was back in the 90s. Now....now I don't know what the situation looks like, from either side, except that you're probably just as likely to have a SRO on site as much because of the potential for shootings as for any kind of outreach.

[NullForceOmega]

In the last high school I attended (in Colorado, so this is very much colored by Columbine) the SRO was basically just there as a threat and deterrent.  They never spoke to students, were armed on school grounds, and other than their patrols through the halls the only time we saw them was when we were called into the principle's office for something.  I have a low opinion of SROs.

If the position of SRO had been used as an outreach opportunity then I would probably like them more, but the most important factor for me is this: twenty years later I still remember my school's D.A.R.E. officers' names, I never even got to learn the SROs.

[Egan_BW]

The officers at my high school wore all-black uniforms and opaque sunglasses, which didn't seem much like an invitation to talk to them like a normal person, so I didn't. The decision to have black uniforms instead of blue ones bothers me, because it seems like an attempt to make police more intimidating.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

My school's SRO was this soft-spoken 7ft tall guy who walked around with his hand on his gun and multiple times full-tackled fighting students into floors and walls, including ones who were closer to kid than teenager. Suffice it to say my opinion of the SRO program is also low.

Even teenagers aren't stupid enough to not pick up a message of "this is a war and you are the enemy, give me an excuse", let alone adults.

[nenjin]

Wow, not my experience at all. I remember my SRO's name; I can't remember my DARE officer's name.

People loved Officer PJ. Everyone said hi to him in the halls and would chat him up or vicea versa. But he was a rather jolly looking fellow in his mid 30s. Not some edgelord in mirror shades.

Put another way: the actual security guards hired for the school were considered pricks by all the students, because they were huge muscle bound dudes who didn't want to talk to students. When students didn't like how the security guards were treating them, they'd ask for Officer PJ to make an appearance.

[NullForceOmega]

I mean, the experience is going to vary wildly from location to location.  Rather like the problems we face with police forces right now, some are well adjusted and try to cooperate with the community, others are out of control wannabe soldiers with no interest in anything put their perceived power.  This whole situation is a huge mess that will be incredibly hard to sort through, and enacting any kind of solution will be massively expensive in time and resources.

I really hope that we can find a way to make it happen tho'.

[smjjames]

Not to mention that there have been incidents of SROs treating kids like they would an adult suspect. So, the reputation isn't all that great either.

I didn't have one at my highschool, though it was a private one and a smaller school. And no, it wasn't a 'rich kid' type deal.

[nenjin]

Admittedly I went to the rich kid's school. Which no doubt had an impact on which officer they got for the SRO program. Can't let a bad cop piss off the kids of those high volume donors.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

I don't think it's likely that most cops would mess with rich kids anyway, both because of knowing there are lawyers about and rich kids not tripping over the Punisher wannabe ideology to begin with. It's hard to say you're "wiping the streets clean of the scum" in such a scenario.

[MrRoboto75]

DARE was collecting donations in front of my workplace about two months ago.

[smjjames]

They're still around, apparently, but their funding is way down. They changed their program back in 2010 in an effort to improve effectiveness, but the wiki page doesn't list any studies since 2009, so, I have no idea if they are any more effective in their main goal. The opioid addiction crisis seems to indicate otherwise.