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Lincoln Police Department Hosts
5th Annual D.A.R.E. Officer Training
 [February 27, 2025]
During the weeks of February 10th through
February 21st, 2025, the Lincoln Police Department hosted its 5th
Annual D.A.R.E. Officer Training Program. The Department supports
this program and its efforts to assist young people with sound
judgement and decision making, including but not limited to
resisting drug and alcohol abuse.
Currently, the Lincoln Police Department employs 4 certified D.A.R.E.
Officers. Our most senior D.A.R.E. Officer, Christy Fruge, also
serves the D.A.R.E. America program as the Illinois D.A.R.E. Officer
Coordinator. Officer Fruge is tasked with many responsibilities
through this assignment, encompassing the entire State of Illinois.
With Officer 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 D.A.R.E. Officer Training program took place at the
Lincoln Police Department in 2020. That year, 18 Officers came from
all over the United States to attend the two week training program
in Lincoln. This included Tribal Police Officers and Military Police
Officers from as far away as California. Since that time, the annual
D.A.R.E. training has continued to bring Officers from all over the
United States. This year, 20 Officers graduated the D.A.R.E. Officer
Training, representing Agencies from Indiana, Illinois, Ohio,
Michigan and Virginia. During their two week stay, these Officers
become a part of the Lincoln community. They stay with us in our
hotels, shop at our stores and patronize our businesses and
restaurants. As a final benchmark in the training program, these
Officers teach a course of instruction at one of our local schools.
Chester-East Lincoln School welcomed the new D.A.R.E. Officers, who
taught their first blocks of instruction to C.E.L. students, then
finished their day with a game of dodgeball.
D.A.R.E. has curriculums designed for children as
young as kindergarten, going all the way through to high school
years. The D.A.R.E. program studies trends which allow
Officers to adjust to specific problems within their communities.
For example, when opioids became a problem across the United States,
D.A.R.E. America created a curriculum specifically for that issue.
D.A.R.E. still uses the opioid curriculum, but also utilizes others
such as a vaping curriculum along with a curriculum called More Than
Sad, which helps young people who are dealing with suicidal
thoughts.
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Every curriculum D.A.R.E. offers
is science and evidence based to be effective. Recently a study
was conducted over 3 years by UNC on how effective the D.A.R.E.
program is.
The training staff, which assists Officer Fruge with instructing
the new D.A.R.E. Officer candidates, consists of 1 Facilitator
and 1 Mentor (team leader) from the Addison, Illinois Police
Department, 1 from St. Clair County, Illinois Sheriff’s
Department, Officer Fruge, and an educator from Iowa. The role
of the educator is to teach the D.A.R.E. Officer candidates to
step out of "investigation mode" and into a teaching mode. The
goal is to transfer the minds of the Officers from interrogation
to communication. This is not an easy process, and it takes time
and practice. Much is asked of these officers. They 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.
The Lincoln Police Department is proud of our D.A.R.E Officers
and of the strides the
D.A.R.E. Program is taking to positively affect the lives of the
children in our communities not only in Illinois, but
nationwide. The Lincoln Police Department and our D.A.R.E.
representatives want to thank the staff and students of
Chester-East Lincoln School for hosting us and allowing the new
D.A.R.E. Officers a place to learn new skills and create
positive relationships with the students and faculty.
Joseph Meister Chief of Police
Lincoln Police Department
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