Lincoln Police Department hosts 6th Annual Illinois D.A.R.E. Officer Training

LINCOLN, Ill. (WAND) - The Lincoln Police Department hosted its 6th Annual Illinois D.A.R.E. Officer Training Program this month.

The program was held during the weeks of February 9 through February 20.

The D.A.R.E. program works to help young people resist drug and alcohol abuse.

The Lincoln Police Department employs four certified D.A.R.E. Officers. The most senior D.A.R.E. Officer, Deputy Chief Christy Fruge, also serves the D.A.R.E. America program as the Illinois D.A.R.E. Officer Coordinator. 

With Deputy Chief Fruge’s selection as the Illinois D.A.R.E. Officer Coordinator, Lincoln became the training hub for the D.A.R.E. program statewide.  

The 1st annual Illinois D.A.R.E. Officer Training program took place at the Lincoln Police Department in 2020. That year, 18 Officers from all over the United States came to attend the two week training program in Lincoln. 

This year, 20 attendants came from Illinois, Nebraska, and Michigan and represented a mix of Municipal Police Departments and County Sheriff’s Offices.

D.A.R.E. has curriculum designed for children as young as kindergarten, going all the way through high school.

Officers must meet certain benchmarks in order to move forward in the class. If those benchmarks are not met, they "deselect" officers from the program. D.A.R.E. only allow officers that are the best fit for a classroom to become D.A.R.E. Officers. 

As a final benchmark in the training program, these Officers teach a course of instruction at a local school.  Chester-East Lincoln School welcomed the new D.A.R.E. Officers, who taught their first blocks of instruction to C.E.L. students.

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