dare_603.jpg

Community Presentations & Tours

The Community Services division of the Police Department offers a variety of education presentations to help children and adults stay safe.  The Community Services division also can provide tours of the Police Department with advanced notice.
 

 D.A.R.E

The City of Warren Police Department offers a 10-week D.A.R.E. program to fifth grade students at Beaty Middle School and Saint Joseph School as well as seventh grade students at Beaty Middle School.

D.A.R.E. (Drug Abuse Resistance Education) is a collaborative effort by D.A.R.E.-certified law enforcement officers, educators, students, parents, and the community to offer an educational program in the classroom to prevent or reduce drug abuse and violence among children and youth. The emphasis of D.A.R.E. is to help students recognize and resist the many direct and subtle pressures that influence them to experiment with alcohol, tobacco, marijuana, inhalants, or other drugs or to engage in violence.

The D.A.R.E program offers preventive strategies to enhance those protective factors - especially bonding to the family, school and community - which appears to foster the development of resiliency in young people who may be at risk for substance abuse or other problem behaviors. Researchers have identified certain protective and social bonding factors in the family, school, and community which may foster resiliency in young people, in other words, the capacity of young people for healthy, independent growth in spite of adverse conditions. These strategies focus on the development of social competence, communication skills, self-esteem, empathy, decision making, conflict resolution, sense of purpose and independence, and positive alternative activities to drug abuse and other destructive behaviors.

The D.A.R.E. program began in Los Angeles in 1983 as a joint venture between the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified School District, and has progressed from a local effort into one of the nation's most widely-recognized substance abuse prevention efforts. Today, D.A.R.E. is taught by uniformed law enforcement officers in all 50 states and in more than 24 foreign countries.

Pennsylvania's formal involvement with D.A.R.E. began in 1986 when two members of the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police successfully completed the 80-hour D.A.R.E. Officer Training Seminar that was conducted by the Los Angeles Police Department. Upon returning to Pittsburgh these officers were responsible for the implementation of this program in the city's public and non-public schools and became the first in the state. The following year members of the Philadelphia Police Department received their certification as D.A.R.E. Officers and implemented their program in the 1987-88 school year.

D.A.R.E. Officer Training began in Pennsylvania in the summer of 1988 when the Philadelphia Police Department conducted its first training class. The following year the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police conducted its first training seminar. Since then, there has been a D.O.T. (D.A.R.E. Officer Training) at least twice a year. In recognition of the increasing interest in D.A.R.E. being expressed by local police departments, the Pennsylvania Commission on Crime and Delinquency (PCCD) implemented a mechanism to provide training to local law enforcement agencies in Pennsylvania interested in starting their D.A.R.E. programs in community schools. Since 1989, PCCD has focused its efforts on training new D.A.R.E. Officers to meet the growing needs for this program throughout Pennsylvania and in coordinating the efforts of the Philadelphia and Pittsburgh training projects under the banner of the PCCD D.A.R.E. Training Center. All of the D.A.R.E. Officers' Training ' in the state is now conducted at the Pennsylvania Masonic Home in Elizabethtown, Pennsylvania at the expense of the Pennsylvania Freemasons.

Pennsylvania's D.A.R.E. effort has been the partnership between the Department of Education and the Commission on Crime and Delinquency.

 Identity Theft

Four hundred thousand people each year fall victim to identity theft and that number is on the rise. This one-hour presentation provides information that will describe how identity theft occurs, how the identity thief uses your information, and how you can minimize the risk of becoming a victim. Included is information on credit bureaus, facts on credit cards, ATM cards, debit cards, and electronic fund transfers.

Protecting your personal information is the best way to protect yourself when it comes to identity theft. However, should you fall victim to an identity thief, we provide you with the necessary information on steps to take to protect your credit history and your good name.

 Internet Safety For Kids

Children today have a wealth of information at their fingertips. Most students do not have to go to the library or use encyclopedias to find information for school projects , but rather turn to the Internet to find the answers they are looking for. We are a society connected by computers and smartphones. Computers and cellphones contain an almost unending amount of information that can be accessed by a key stroke. The internet is a great place to learn, but it can also hold a host of dangers if used unwisely.

Internet Safety for Kids is designed to make youth aware of the dangers of surfing the web, especially entering live chat rooms, and posting information on bulletin boards, Facebook and social media in general. The presentation teaches kids not to believe everything they see on the internet and that not everyone they meet is who they claim to be. Kids are also made aware that they should not provide personal information on the internet.

In today's society it is becoming increasingly difficult to shield children from the harmful things on social media, the Internet and within the technology we use everyday. Cyberbullying, stalking and child predators are just a few dangers children face due to the increasing presence of the Internet and social media in their lives. Teaching them at an appropriate age and continuing to be involved in their everyday online lives can help curb some of the dangers they are faced with while using the Internet, browsing and posting on social media and releasing information about themselves.

 Tour the Police Station

The City of Warren Police Department offers station tours by appointment. Tours are designed for groups of people who are interested in the various functions of the Police Department including: Administrative, Patrol, Traffic, Bicycle, Criminal Investigations, Community Relations/Crime Prevention, and Records sections. Tours last approximately 30 to 60 minutes, depending on the age group of the participants, and contain topics of interest for all ages. Police patrol cars are available for children to tour.